Dance with me

Created by Omar Rajeh and Mia Habis for Maqamat, Dance People erases the distance between audience and performers – scenic structures shift throughout the performance, long strips of paper continually redraw the boundaries of the space, and spectators are invited to step inside, becoming physically involved rather than remaining mere observers. “This is not a performance to be watched from a distance,” Rajeh explains. “It is a gesture to be shared – a space to inhabit.” First presented at the Edinburgh Festival in 2025, where critics described it as a compelling experience capable of drawing audiences into a shared choreographic situation that rethinks presence, hierarchy, and encounter, the work now arrives in Italy for its premiere at Parco Albanese in Mestre, Piazzale Divisione Acqui. The dancers exchange knowing glances, their bodies pulsating through mutual contact, recognizing one another in movement. Above them, projected texts question the audience’s identity and return a precise definition – “citizens” – accompanied by sequences of verbs that evoke freedom of movement, inviting participants to reclaim their bodies within a shared space.

Dance People develops a joyful aesthetic while maintaining a sharp political edge, challenging the mechanisms of power and supremacy that usually determine who has the right to occupy a space and who is excluded from it. Rajeh, a Lebanese choreographer and founder of Maqamat and the BIPOD platform in Beirut, now also based in Lyon, has long explored the idea of the body as a multitude – not an isolated individual, but a constellation of centres of meaning in constant dialogue with others. Convinced of dance’s power to bring people together, he also co-founded the Masahat network, connecting artists and organisations around the world, and in 2017 established Citerne Beirut, a choreographic and cultural centre that remains a key reference point for Lebanon’s independent performing arts scene. Dance People is the fourth and final chapter of The Gathering Project, an extensive reflection on how we can still be together today, in an age of algorithms and artificial intelligence, without losing our capacity for genuine human encounter.