Led by Israeli-born Artistic Director Zvi Gotheiner, ZviDance will premiere DABKE, a contemporary dance inspired by this ancient Middle-Eastern folk dance, and COUPLING.  ZviDance's home season will be presented from May 31 - June 3, 2012 at the New York Live Arts Theater, 219 W. 19^th Street, New York, NY 10011.  Performances:  Thursday – Saturday at 7:30pm, Saturday & Sunday at 2pm.  Tickets: $25 ($18 for Live Arts Members & Associate Artists, students, and seniors), available at http://newyorklivearts.org/event/DABKE or by phone at (212) 924-0077.

Arabic for “stomping the ground,” Dabke is the national dance of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine; Israelis have their own version. Mr. Gotheiner’s DABKE uses the power of dance to highlight tribal and national identities as well as dissolve those definitions. Reflecting on the recent “Arab Spring” movement that ignited the Middle-East with unstoppable forces for change, Gotheiner aspires to celebrate this trend, and by creating DABKE, acknowledges its ripple effect on all of us.  Composition and live music by Scott Killian, and lighting design by Mark London.

The evening will also include the World Premiere of Coupling, an exploration in the art of partnering and the way two bodies coexist in space and time. This suite of 11 duets ponders what makes two people gravitate towards each other.

“One does not just watch a dance by Zvi Gotheiner.  One enters a world with its own internal logic, a sensual, organic world of movement, language, and images where one is pulled along by currents unseen and inevitable.” – Dance Magazine