Photo by Yves Bittar

Photo by Talal Khoury

Chayyel

Chayyel is dabkeh reimagined in a hypnotic electronic pulse: burning rhythms, bodies in motion, and visuals that blur into a mesmerizing trance from the very first beat.
Between sensual imagery and deep, vibrant bass, this performance draws you into an immersive experience where tradition and the desire for freedom dance as one.

Chayyel, is an audiovisual performance in which Rayess Bek and Joan Baz reimagine the music and dance of dabkeh. Built from recordings made in Beirut with Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian musicians (tabla, nay, mizmar, synthesizer, and voice), Rayess Bek performs a live electro remix, reshaping these sounds into a vibrant, pulsating contemporary soundscape. In parallel, Joan Baz manipulates live footage of dabkeh dancers she has filmed: slow motion, layering, and visual collage transform the bodies into a hypnotic, ghostlike choreography.

Set against a Middle East marked by ongoing conflict, where collective identities are continually contested, Chayyel engages with both the fragility and the resilience of cultural heritage. Rather than preserving tradition as a static form, the project projects it into the present, asserting it as an act of freedom and self-determination. The word chayyel, used in dabkeh to prompt a musician to improvise, becomes here a metaphor for fluid identities, neither fixed nor imposed, but constantly reshaped and expressed beyond political and cultural fractures.
At the crossroads of concert, performance, and installation, Chayyel affirms improvisation as a vital space for resistance, transformation, and collective reinvention.

Wael Koudaih : Music
Joan Baz : Video
Rima Brahim Ben : Lighting
Production : Cie Rayess Bek
Co-production: Saison Mediterranée, A.M.I – Aide aux musiques innovatrices.