El-Funoun Beginnings :
El-Funoun was founded in 1979 by a small number of enthusiastic, talented and committed men and women, who collectively strove to present a special flavour of authentic Palestinian music and dance. Since then, El-Funoun has been throned the leading Palestinian dance company. In Palestine, as well as among Palestinians in exile, El-Funoun has achieved unprecedented popular recognition, and quite a few of the Troupe’s songs have become household tunes.
El-Funoun is widely recognized as the cultural entity that has played the most significant role in reviving and reinvigorating the Palestinian dance and music folklore. This accomplishment was particularly momentous since it effectively helped counter the systematic attempts by the Israeli Occupation to suppress the Palestinian national identity. One of the foremost achievements in this regard is the annual tradition of celebrating the Palestinian Folklore Day, that El-Funoun initiated in 1986.
Nevertheless, producing dance in a traditional society living under occupation has always presented El-Funoun with particularly serious challenges. Travel bans and random arrests of Troupe members, on the one hand, were some of El-Funoun’s special share of the repressive measures of the Israeli Occupation. On the other hand, discrimination against women, resistance to cultural change and relative intolerance of intellectual pluralism have symbolized the obstacles the Troupe had to reckon with as a result of some of the outdated norms and traditions in Palestinian society.
Despite all the challenges stacked against its growth, El-Funoun succeeded in producing several pioneering works, that attracted admiration and enthusiasm from Palestinian, Arab and international audiences. Throughout its eventful history, El-Funoun has maintained its unique character and popularity, stemming from its artistic experience and vision.
