Call for Interview Contributors! Dabke Research in Lebanon

---

I am conducting oral history interviews with current and former artists in Lebanon who have worked with dabke. This research is both part of my MA Thesis in History, and a contribution to Yaraqa's "Activating the Ecosystem" platform, an applied and public research project that studies Lebanon's dance & movement ecosystem.  https://www.yaraqa.com

I am investigating how the activities of everyday artists in Lebanon contributed to dabke's professional evolution during the late modern period. The research looks beneath major events, like the Rahbani Brothers' operettas (debuted at the International Baalbeck Festival in 1956) to understand how a multitude of artists negotiated and facilitated dabke's emergence in theatrical, commercial, and  formal educational settings. The research reaches back to the nineteenth century, when indigenous dancers found professional performance opportunities in Beirut's Ottoman-era coffee houses, and when Arab literati adapted European theatrical tradition during the Nadha. 

This critical history asks about the experiences of historic actors who were mediating the changing face of dabke, particularly dancers who practiced dabke in multiple contexts. Through archival research and oral history interviews, I am exploring the perspectives of artists. Recognizing the force of such artists in history–whose bodily experiences and performances transformed cultural possibilities–I am curious about what motivated and informed their work. What cultural dispositions, socio-political contexts, and dance experiences were embedded in artists’ work? How did they artistically and discursively represent dabke in different contexts? What simultaneous history of endurance and transformation lies underneath MTV Lebanon’s recently launched “Let’s Dabke,” and how have dancers contributed to it?