There is an open square with the backs of houses and broken down walls all around. In the middle of the square there is a space where men are dancing frenetically. At the back is the band and the singer.
One of the things, the sad things, about occasions like this is that the sexes are separate. In the first party I went to there were no women there at all. They were having their own party with the bride to be. In this party, because of the fame of the singer, there are women here, but they are sitting well to the back of the square, on balconies and walls. They are listening to the music, clapping to its rhythm but not getting close up and certainly not dancing. The men dance in the central space, with each other, in circles or up close by themselves. As I walk in, a young student leads me to the central slightly raised area and I start to dance to the frenetic music, together with the one or two hundred men already there. There are also other men sitting on chairs watching. The music is fast with the same syncopated rhythm I had heard before. In front of the band, is Naser Al Fares himself, a tall rather gaunt man in his thirties or forties, singing with all his power, something he keeps up the whole night. He is incredibly charismatic. Some of our students are there, and the bridegroom, who is bearing carried on the shoulders of his friends.
Then there is a pause and the central space is cleared. A lot of anticipation people looking towards the entrance. And then then the Dubke group comes in, there are about ten of them, each one carrying flaming torches. Most of them are wearing black tunics with kaffiyehs round their waists, but this time there are others with white tunics. These are the acrobatic soloists. The Dubke group dance in circles, and the soloists do some amazing things: climb on to the shoulders of other dancers, spin somersaults in the air.
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