Repertory Dance Theatre presents DABKE

Repertory Dance Theatre, a revolutionary institution of modern dance, will close their 51st season of revolutionary modern dance with DABKE, April 6-8, 2017 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.

Recognized by The New York Times as one of Alastair Macaulay's TOP TEN DANCE FAVORITES OF 2013, Zvi Gotheiner's "Dabke" is based on a Middle-Eastern dance often performed at weddings, holidays and community celebrations. Strongly referencing solidarity, the dancers, linked by hands or shoulders stomp the ground with complex rhythms, emphasizing their connection to the land.

With DABKE, Gotheiner blends Middle Eastern folk dance and Arab pop music with contemporary dance vocabulary to highlight tribal and national identities...as well as to dissolve those definitions.

A frequent collaborator with RDT, Zvi Gotheiner is an Israeli-born choreographer who has been working in New York since the late 90s. Gotheiner has worked with RDT since 1993 when he and composer Scott Killian were commissioned to create "Erosion," inspired by the red-rock, canyonlands area. Since then, RDT has performed seven of Gotheiner's works including five commissions.

RDT first performed excerpts of DABKE in 2015 in RITUAL, the opening concert of the 50th anniversary season. This April, RDT will perform the work in its entirety -- a 48 minute, evening-length event.

Reflecting on the recent "Arab Spring" movement with unstoppable forces for change, DABKE is about conflict in the Middle East, conflict in the world, and the hope for peace. As Alastair Macaulay stated, "'Dabke' ...is thrilling in how it continually realizes the changing human impulse that prompts people to dance."

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