DABKE

“One does not just watch a dance by Zvi Gotheiner. One enters a world with its own internal logic, a sensual, organic world of movement, language, and images where one is pulled along by currents unseen and inevitable.”
– Dance Magazine

Led by Israeli-born Artistic Director Zvi Gotheiner, ZviDance will premiere DABKE, a contemporary dance inspired by this ancient Middle-Eastern folk dance. Arabic for “stomping the ground,” Dabke is the national dance of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine; Israelis have their own version. Mr. Gotheiner’s DABKE uses the power of dance to highlight tribal and national identities as well as dissolve those definitions. Reflecting on the recent “Arab Spring” movement that ignited the Middle-East with unstoppable forces for change, Gotheiner aspires to celebrate this trend, and by creating DABKE, acknowledges its ripple effect on all of us.

This presentation is made possible in part by New York Live Arts' Theater Access Program.