"Dabke / دبكة : stomping forces" is a new dance project by ZviDance, exploring the nature of national identities.

The company began working on “Dabke” in November 2011, after being awarded a three-week NYSCA funded residency at the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in upstate New York.  We want to continue to develop the work starting January but need YOUR support to make this project come to life!  "Dabke" is scheduled to premier on May 31 - June 3, 2012 at the New York Live Arts.

What, Why and Who?

Scott Killian, is a composer who has repeatedly pushed the conceptual and emotional level of our past projects.  Mr. Killian will infuse authentic Dabke rhythms, specifically from Lebanon and Syria, with his signature style of minimalistic electronic compositions. 

Since Dabke is a dance that emphasizes human connection to the land, Mark London, company's resident lighting designer and long lasting collaborator will use his brilliant architectural approach to lighting to establish territories in the theater. 

Territories will be fought for, but no winners declared. 

You may ask: why does a modern dance company whose previous projects explore the relationship between dance and technology, is inspired by a traditional folk dance?

The recent "Arab Spring" that ignited the Middle-East with unstoppable forces for change inspired Mr. Gotheiner to contribute to the momentum, and by the creation of art, address its global ripple effect on all of us.

You may ALSO ask: “and in the end, will you create a folk dance, a line dance?”

Of course not! The company will begin to re-imagine the traditional step sequences of various Dabke variations, deconstructing the very familiar Dabke movement phrases and infusing them with Mr. Gotheiner's very particular contemporary movement vocabulary. The line dance structure will be broken, keeping the form in the background like a past memory.

Your Support

Last year the company celebrated it’s 20th Anniversary. For the past two decades the company has been fortunate to be able to sustain itself by creating challenging work which was being generously supported by our audience and foundations. In the past two years the international art community from Netherlands to Greece, Germany to Brazil has experienced dramatic and devastating cut-backs in the support of art. This holds true in this country - and for this reason we ask for YOUR help.

ZviDance has secured a portion of project funding in order to develop and present this work. BUT we still need some support in order to be able to produce and share with you this work. This Kickstarter campaign is truly VITAL to our 2012 season's success.

Your support will allow us to pay dancers' salaries during an intensive 12 week rehearsal process necessary to create this project.

Without THEM, this work can not happen. 
And without YOU, they can not make it happen.

More about ZviDance

Led by Israeli-born Artistic Director Zvi Gotheiner, the company is shaped by a collaborative model of creation, involving the ensemble and designers from the initial research phase, so as to constantly push the methodology and ethics of a creation process within an inter-disciplinary format.

In the last 20 years of existence, ZviDance has received critical praise and stable funding for its artistic projects, a work that fearlessly refuses to be bounded to specific thematic or aesthetic dogma. The company performs frequently at home in such New York venues as the Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. ZviDance has toured across North America to festivals such as Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and The American Dance Festival, and abroad to Germany, Poland, Russia, Israel, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Japan.