Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Time: 6:00 - 8:30 PM Location: The Jerusalem Fund, (2425 Virginia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20037)
El-Funoun Dance Troupe - Dabke Workshop in Washington DC
Dancers from El-Funoun will be touring the United States in August 2025 to carry out a series of dabke workshops for beginners and advanced dancers. These gatherings promise to provide an inspiring opportunity for participants to learn more about Palestinian dabke, develop dabke skills, and make connections with community members. Further, they will support the work of a vital Palestinian cultural institution to remain steadfast in the face of overwhelming attempts by Israel to silence, suppress and erase Palestinian society and culture.
More about learning Dabke with El-Funoun - Interested in learning traditional Palestinian dabke? Join dancer/trainer from the premiere dance troupe in Palestine. Watch demonstrations of El-Funoun's dabke style and dance school of thought and learn the basic steps to traditional Palestinian dances. The interactive training workshop will provide participants the opportunity to explore:
the role of dabke in shaping Palestinian identity and culture.
dance steps and sequences that comprise traditional Palestinian dabke Tayara.
improvisation of the laweeh, the principle dancer who leads the dabke circle.
INFO ABOUT EL-FUNOUN - Widely considered the lead Palestinian dance company in Palestine and the diaspora, El-Funoun was established in 1979 by a small group of enthusiastic, creative and committed artists. The Troupe has developed an innovative style of dance deeply-rooted in Palestinian and Arab folklore and informed by elements of contemporary dance movement. The Troupe’s repertoire includes 16 major dance productions and over 1,500 performances throughout historic Palestine, regionally, and internationally. In Palestine, El-Funoun has developed a school for contemporary Palestinian dance, training hundreds annually. It has carried out dabke workshops throughout the West Bank, in the Arab world and internationally.
Sustained almost entirely by volunteers for decades, El-Funoun is a non-profit dance company with close to 300 members. El-Funoun’s mission is to revive and innovate Palestinian music, song and dance. Recognizing culture as a tool of and for resistance, El-Funoun challenges the complicity of international aid agencies in the oppression of Palestinians by refusing politically conditioned funding from agencies that have failed to call for a ceasefire. The dance company is working toward becoming fully self-sufficient by raising funds through its dance productions and workshops.
El-Funoun is a non-profit, almost fully volunteer based dance company with 267 members. Committed to its core principles of cultural resistance, El-Funoun has continuously refused to accept conditional funding from international aid agencies. During the current genocidal attack on Gaza, El-Funoun has refused funding from international aid agencies that have failed to call for a ceasefire. The dance company is working towards becoming fully self-sufficient by raising funds through its dance productions and dance training workshops.
MEET THE EL-FUNOUN INSTRUCTORS
Noora Baker - Noora Baker is a director, choreographer, and trainer and has been a member of El-Funoun since 1987, when she joined its youth troupe, Barem. Noora is currently El-Funoun’s head of production, choreographing and directing various projects, and she co-directed its most recent production, Asheera. She is also an international performer and maker, and has worked collaboratively with artists such as Yoshiko Chuma and André Gingras.
Noora is a co-founder and member of CACTUS performance art collective and has worked on several projects regionally and internationally. She is a lecturer in the College of Arts, Music and Design at Birzeit University. She received an MA in performance making from Goldsmiths University of London and a BA in business administration from Birzeit University.
Samer Karajah - Samer Karajah started his dance career with the Handala Dabke Troupe in the village of Saffa before becoming a member of El-Funoun in 2010. Samer is one of the principal dancers, instructors and choreographers in the Troupe. He has co-choreographed El-Funoun’s The Rooster, Asheera, and its upcoming production Zaff. He has also conducted a number of dabke workshops in Palestine and internationally.
Samer holds a BA in Business Administration from Birzeit University in Palestine. In addition to his work with El-Funoun, he is a co-owner of a restaurant, an entrepreneur, and a farmer. He is inspired as an artist by developing dance informed by natural movements found in everyday life.