Meet Malikat Al Dabke

We were lucky to catch up with Malikat Al Dabke recently and have shared our conversation below.

Malikat Al Dabke, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Our resilience comes from continuing to do what we do amidst challenging times, especially when there is direct censorship and attack on Palestinian people and anyone who speaks up about the genocide and participates in Palestinian culture. Existing is resisting, and we ensure that our heritage stays alive by constantly creating new dances, learning from and engaging with the community. We also ensure that we continue strengthening our bonds within our team, meeting every week and talking everyday about the goal that drives us, our performances and what that entails: an interpretation of our culture and how we move in this world.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

We are a dabke dance troupe. Dabke is a traditional folkloric Levantine dance that embodies community, connection with the land, and resilience. It is danced in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. We also do an Iraqi version of dabke, called Chobi or dabcha. We dance at various types of events, including fundraisers, cultural events, festivals, weddings, hennas, protests, museums, libraries, universities, schools, galas, conferences, embassies, community organizations, graduations and more.

Each member of the group has over a decade of Dabke experience performing and teaching hundreds of students through volunteer and educational workshops. We have performed across the country (including DC, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Massachusetts and Michigan), and helped to raise more than $93k to aid Palestinians through prominent organizations.

What is most exciting about it is how our movement helps us heal. It also helps us spread our joy and grief to audiences for them to heal, as well as immerse themselves in their culture or experience a new culture first-hand.

We have a full production show coming to the stage in February 2026 that tells the story of our connection to the land through music. Stay tuned for more information on tickets!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back, the three qualities that were most impactful in our journey was dedication to the art and its contribution to the cause, our passion for it and our organizing efforts to mobilize. There wouldn’t be a group if every member did not feel strongly about keeping it alive and active. We have innovated throughout our time together and continue to do so, expanding our performances towards singing and more interpretive pieces as well.

The best advice for folks early in their journey is to start a journey that they already feel passionately about and do, move, and remember to experience it with presence – everything else will then fall into place. It also helps to have a strong support system in the process – there is no one that can do it alone.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

We believe in improving our strengths, because we are all a work in progress, but also investing in improving areas we aren’t as strong in. In order to have a strong dance group, you have to be able to learn how to balance building on your weaknesses and highlighting your strengths. Balance is the real challenge, as it’s more difficult to maintain. It can also be more uncomfortable trying to learn something you’re not as well versed in, so many people shy away from their weak points. It’s important to learn how to be comfortable with discomfort.

With our troupe, we are able to maintain that balance because we all have different backgrounds and different strengths. As a result, we are able to assist each other in learning new things that some may need more work in than others and helping each other polish our existing expertise. We discuss new dance styles from different regions, ask each other’s families for cultural knowledge and do our research before we bring it to practice. When we practice, we all provide input to each other’s movements, the moves in correlation with the beats, certain dialects and what songs mean and how we move together. It’s important to maintain that balance especially so we can move together in unison, as that is what dabke demands.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Omar Tawfik
Nikki Daskalakis
Alex Costello
Nathan Kramer

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