Bnat el Houariyat and Esraa Warda at Retreat

Join us for a night of music and dance by Bnat el Houariyat, an intergenerational all-women's group preserving ancestral Moroccan Chaabi and Houara musical and dance traditions "au féminin."

Bnat el Houariyat is a Moroccan all-women 7 piece women's music and dance group of chaabi and houara music lead by Khadija el Warzazia. They use voice and traditional Moroccan percussion - bendir, darbouka, taarija, dohdoh, and tebsil, Khadija's songs are about the romantic, the personal, the spiritual, the societal, and the natural - representing the raw spectrum of human experience. She is known for her unique fusions of Gnawa prose into these musical styles dedicated to praising female spirits.

Known as "laâbat" in Morocco, women's groups who entertain in all-women's home gatherings or weddings, Bnat el Houariyat bring the ambiance of Moroccan celebrations to the concert stage and are known to leave audiences in a trance with their polyrhythms, call and responses, and rhythmic climaxes.

This performance is presented in partnership with Old Town School of Folk Music, and made possible by generous support from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.