Dabke

Dabke is a Levantine folk dance and its accompanying music, performed across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine at weddings and celebrations, in which a line or circle of dancers stamps in unison behind a lead dancer and singer. Traditional accompaniment uses the mijwiz and rababa reed instruments, the tabl baladi drum and handclaps over repetitive sung verses. Since the 1990s, and especially in Syria, an electronic form has dominated: producers build tracks from synthesizer leads imitating the mijwiz, drum-machine rhythms and pitched-up folk samples at fast tempos, driven by keyboard players at all-night wedding parties.