Hundreds of years ago, houses in the Levant were made of stone, and the roofs were made from wood, sticks and mud. During the rainy season, the roofs would no longer hold together and needed to be compacted, so the homeowner would call on his or her neighbors to help them stomp on the mud to make it compacted again. In order for this to work, everyone needed to stomp in unison, and this was how dabke was born.
Since then, dabke has been used not only at festive occasions but has also been used to commemorate historical events in the Palestinian memory. It serves as a way to preserve Palestinian culture and identity after the wars and displacement of 1948, 1967 and even now while under occupation. It also has been used as a form of creative protest in the West Bank, Gaza and around the world.
Ultimately, while dabke has been used for many purposes and to tell many stories, it continues to carry the same representations of solidarity, cooperation, cultural preservation and strength of the human spirit.
