Energetic mix of Palestinian folk dance, contemporary dance, hip hop and circus
‘Badke’ is a distortion of ‘dabke’, a Palestinian folk dance. The performance starts out from the popular variant: the people’s social, festive dabke. The Palestinian performers go on to confront this locally rooted dance with elements from worldwide pop (dance) culture. Badke becomes a quest for a dabke that not only conveys the unique Palestinian desire to ‘belong somewhere’, but also the wish to be part of a world beyond that.
Badke is a result of a series of workshops with young Palestinian performing artists, launched in 2006 by KVS (Royal Flemish Theatre), les ballets C de la B and the A.M. Qattan Foundation. For Badke Koen Augustijnen, Rosalba Torres Guerrero (les ballets C de la B) and Hildegard De Vuyst (KVS) worked with ten young Palestinian performers, from various disciplines including contemporary dance, hip hop and circus.
“Overwhelming vitality … a tornado of dance delight, imagination and virtuosity.” – Tages Anzeiger, Switzerland
“As powerful as it is playful.” – Basler Zeitung, Switzerland
“The catchy joy of Badke, which can be read from the joyful faces of the dancers, easily drags the audience along in a pleasant trance.” – Moos van den Broek, Theaterkrant.nl November 14, 2013, the Netherlands
“Energetic, easy going, united, these are the labels that fit here. (…) The dabke is entertainment, but also a way to shout reality down. A lifeline and a scourge which brings the dancers to the brink of exhaustion.” – Mirjam van der Linden, Volkskrant November 16, 2013, the Netherlands
FROM Koen Augustijnen, Rosalba Torres Guerrero & Hildegard De Vuyst WITH Fadi Zmorrod, Ashtar Muallem, Farah Saleh, Yazan Eweidat, Salma Ataya, Samaa Wakim, Mohammad Samahnah, Samer Samahnah, Maali Maali, Ayman Safia ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Zina Zarour SOUNDTRACK Sam Serruys COSTUMES Britt Angé LIGHTING DESIGN Ralf Nonn PRODUCTION KVS, les ballets C de la B & A.M. Qattan Foundation CO-PRODUCTION Zürcher Theater Spektakel, les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg WITH THE SUPPORT OF Roberto Cimetta Foundation LENGTH 65’
