I’m Just Here for the Dabke

This essay examines dabke, the Palestinian folk dance, as a site of cultural resistance and political intervention. Blending personal narrative, media, and historical analysis, it traces dabke’s evolution from rural Levantine roots to its appropriation by Israeli state institutions and its ongoing reclamation by Palestinians in the diaspora and under occupation. Through performances, workshops, and activism, the essay explores how dabke mediates joy, grief, and solidarity, challenging both colonial narratives and respectability politics in the arts. Situating dance within broader struggles for liberation, it argues that embodied practice can enact political claims where words fail, sustaining community, memory, and resilience. To “shut up and dance” becomes a deliberate act of survival, creativity, and defiance. Ultimately, dabke illustrates the transformative potential of cultural practice as both a repository of history and a vehicle for radical imagining and collective freedom.