São Paulo – Since October of last year, Lebanese dancer Tufic Nabak dedicates many hours of his week to teach the Arab folk dance dabke to actors of Rede Globo. Nabak moved from Lebanon to Brazil when in his teens e currently teaches the cast of the TV mini-series Dois Irmãos (The Brothers), which is being shot by the network. The production is based on the book of the same name by author Milton Hatoum, which tells the story of a family of Lebanese immigrants living in Manaus.
The release date for the mini-series hasn’t been set yet. Nabak says that he was invited by director Luiz Fernando Carvalho himself, who also directed Lavoura Arcaica (To The Left of the Father), a movie that also portrayed Arab immigrants and in which Nabak acted as supporting cast. “It’s very rewarding that he remembered me after 16 years and invited me to teach dabke classes, given that as participated only as supporting cast”, says the dancer.
Nabak is a leading expert of dabke in Brazil. Born in the town of Ras Baalbeck, North of Lebanon, he left the country in 1990, just 17 years old. At the time, the dancer lived in Beirut. The boy came with his family because the country was facing a civil war. And he brought with him the passion for dancing. “I started to dance in Lebanon when I was 10”, he tells. In the Arab country, he took classes and danced in school and family parties and was part of the group Al Chabibe.
His part in the movie To The Left of the Father was the starting point of his career in Brazil. Besides being supporting cast, Nabak worked as an advisor for Arab culture and language. “With some scenes of the movie, I remembered some remarkable traits of my origins and decided to dedicate myself to projects that displayed the happiness and cultural richness of the Arab people”, he says. Since then, he studies and researches Arab dances and performing arts with the goal to promote the Lebanese folk dance.
Nabak also acted in the soap opera O Clone, at Rede Globo, represented Brazil in international festivals, released a DVD and a book about the Lebanese culture and teaches Arab language and folklore at the Arab Cultural Centre Nabak, located inside Clube Sírio e Libanês in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, where he is a cultural director. In 2006, he earned the first place in the doubles category, with Bárbara Schalaucher, in one of the biggest festivals of Arab dances in Brazil, the Mercado Persa (Persian Market).
“The award was very important for my career and was one of the open doors that boost my work across Brazil”, he says. Rabak teaches workshops about Arab dances and takes part in dance contests as judge. He also mantains the Nabak dance group and studied other dance modes because of his judge stints. One of these dances is Afro-Brazilian, which he studied to play a character in the play Orixás.
In his current job to Rede Globo, Nabak teaches dabke classes to actors such as Antonio Fagundes, Antonio Calloni, Eliane Giardini, Juliana Paes and Cauã Reymond. In the opening party of the meetings for the work, the Lebanese dancer performed. Besides teaching dance classes, he participates in lectures, body expression and readings with the cast. “This recognition is another milestone in my journey”, he says.
Dabke is a dance in which the people make circles, join hands and jump and stomp the ground. At Globo, Nabak is helping the production in the formation of a dabke circle that will be part of a wedding scene in the early stages of the series. “The dabke circle never closes, there’s always space for one more”, says Nabak, adding that to dance is necessary to let itself be guided by the music and rhythm with joy. “It’s also necessary to dance with the heart to represent well this dance, which is one of the most famous tradition of my land”, says the dancer.
Dabke is a Lebanese dance, but it spread to other countries of the region, such as Syria, Egypt and Palestine. Each country made adaptations to the dance following their own way and style. The dabke taught and danced by Nabak is the original one, from Lebanon.
In Brazil, currently, Nabak lives in Juiz de Fora. Since he was young when he first came to the country, he finished his studies and later went to college to study Tourism at Faculdade de Turismo de Santos Dumont, in Minas Gerais state. Nabak has a major in Events.
The dancer travels every two years to Lebanon. “To visit family and friends, relive the habits of the land, dance in the wedding of the villages, go to the international culture festivals, such as the one in Baalbeck, and try always to improve my studies in Arab folk dances”, he says. Nabak is a huge fan of his birth place. “Lebanon, my beloved land, in it I was born and it inspires me to follow my trajectory in the country”, he says. To promote the Lebanese culture remains in his plans.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
