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From Aleppo to alpha male: Beirut dance fest takes on the world

Founded 15 years ago, the Beirut International Platform of Dance strives to make contemporary dance a staple of Lebanon’s artistic culture while pushing the boundaries of the art form to speak to the issues of the day.
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BEIRUT — “We need to push continuously,” Omar Rajeh, founder and co-director of the Lebanese contemporary dance company Maqamat, told Al-Monitor. Rajeh is also one of the organizers of the Beirut International Platform of Dance (BIPOD), a festival whose 15th edition is taking place April 4-13. It features companies from the Middle East and around the world and seeks to establish itself and contemporary dance as mainstream fixtures on the Lebanese cultural scene.

“I am afraid of being static, afraid that the festival might become routine,” Rajeh said. “In order to prevent this, every year I feel we are pushing harder and harder, thinking of something new to develop the festival, to build it up and push it further on many levels.”

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