Ya Abud (Debka Abud)

I could write some information on this dance and the choreographer, Moshiko HaLevy, but Don at Folkdance Footnotes has already done a very detailed article on Ya Abud using many of the sources, such as Hora Wiki, I was going to use. Please also read Don’s article on the Arab dance genre Dabke.

Concerning debka in general and this dance in particular, Moshiko says:

Arabic debka is a kind of prayer. The Arabs, by stamping strong on the earth, are thanking the earth that’s supporting them. Most of the songs that accompany these dances are about love and women. Muslim leaders used to be against young boys dancing debka, feeling that dance was only for religious occasions, but after many years they realized that they cannot control the young boys and began to use those dances for all kinds of celebrations, like weddings, where it became popular.

I made this dance when I was working with a Druze group in Ossafiya [Isfiya] in the Karmel mountain [Mount Carmel]. I observed their material, and after having all the elements I made a choreography for their group. The elements are authentic Arabic which I learned from one of the elder dancers in their group (too long ago to remember his name—he was the instructor of the group until I came). I decided to make a choreography from the elements so they could perform them.

HoraWiki, Ya Abud, Interview with Moshiko, loosely translated, June 26 2020

The song “Ya Abud” is actually a combination of two Lebanese songs popularized by Sabah (Jeanette Gergis al-Feghali): “An-Nadda Nadda”(Arabic: عالندا الندا, “The Dew, The Dew”) for the first part and “Jeeb il-Mijwiz Ya Abud” (Arabic: جيب المجوز يا عبود, “Take the Mizwiz, O Abud!”) for the remainder.

Moshiko was born in Jaffa, Palestine in 1932, to a family of deep Yemenite Jewish ancestry. “I grew up in Jaffa before the War of Independence, when Jews and Arabs all mixed freely.” Moshiko has devoted much of his life to Middle-Eastern minorities in Israel, such as Arabs, Cerkissians, and Druze.

The Druze are an Arab ethnoreligious minority group mostly living in the Levant for centuries, primarily now in the modern boundaries of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. The faith is distinct from Islam and combines elements of many religions, mostly for the sake of blending in with the various dominating cultures throughout history. Details of the faith are largely secret, conversion to Druze is not allowed, and marrying outside the faith is rare and strongly discouraged. They believe that through successive reincarnations the soul will at last be united with the Cosmic Mind.