Living the dance: El -Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe

If the handful of teenagers from the twin cities of Ramallah and El Bireh who founded El- Funoun 30 years ago had a glimpse into the future, they would have probably hesitated at the heaviness of the burden: who would have thought that the initiative of no more than five or six 15 - 20 year old debka dancers committed to the cause of their country would grow into a dance group that has set the ground for the development of Palestinian dance inside and outside Palestine, for strengthening the role of women, for developing the use of art as therapy, and for the development of a research organization and a world-class International Festival for dance and music.

El- Funoun was never simply a dance group: it was more of a community that nurtures all its members, to the extent that today, 30 years on, we remain very close, despite the different paths we took. We always boasted our diverse backgrounds and experiences: from whitewashers to engineers, poets to village troubadours, political activists to bourgeois dance enthusiasts, young and old, men and women, we all were on the same boat. Starting out as an all-male group when Debka was considered a masculine activity, the pioneers had the insight to invite young women dancers from other all-female dance groups in Ramallah, a combination that was to achieve outstanding results. El- Funoun went on to become the leading Palestinian dance group not only because of the quality of the dance, nor its in-depth field research, but most of all for its role as "incubator" for young Palestinian talents.

A close look at the "virtuosity" of the concept that constitutes El- Funoun today will reveal several factors. First of all, it started with a group of friends who did not close the circle of friendship: other new friends were always, and continue to be, welcome. Its accomplishments are the result of joint efforts of every single member of the group: everyone is encouraged to have an input. The group remained a dance group despite pressures at "institutionalization". Up till this day the administrative structure remains very small with one manager and one assistant manager, both of whom are dancers/choreographers, while everyone else is a volunteer, including the active board members. Even when the group felt the need for in-depth research into popular Palestinian heritage, it gave that task to a separate independent organization which it helped establish, namely, the Popular Arts Centre. El- Funoun remains after three decades a "youthful" group, thanks to the young budding dancers as young as four years of age who join the Popular Arts Centre’s Debka School and later join the "Bara’em El -Funoun" where they are prepared to become the main corpus of El-Funoun dancers. Both groups are role models for Palestinian youth even those who do not have their hopes set on becoming dancers. Most of all, El- Funoun sustained strong links with the community through performing in every corner and volunteering its dancers as trainers upon request. Thirty years on, El- Funoun is an inspiration as much as it is a dance group: dancing life and living the dance.

Serene Huleileh
February 26, 2009
This week in Palestine


Serene Huleileh was El Funoun dancer and an active member of the artistic team from 1980 to 1996 and has been a board member since 1996.

Article photos by Nida Haj Ali Qatamesh

 

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