The ninth edition of the Raks Madrid international festival of Arabic music and dance will take place from Saturday 27th to Tuesday 30th of April 2019.
In this edition, dedicated to dance with orchestral accompaniment, “The Live Music Experience”, the festival incorporates 4 days of study and 2 evenings of live performance. All the music will be played live by the orchestra directed by Nesma and featuring accomplished musicians from Europe and the Middle East.
Raks Madrid is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself for a whole week in Oriental Dance with a real orchestra made up of great musicians, to learn from true experts in Arabic dance and music and to perform in the evenings of the festival.
The festival is created to enable you to understand essence of Arabic music as well as the means to interpret it through dance.
“I dedicated myself to dance because of the impact the music had on me. When I began dancing in Egypt I was accompanied by an orchestra of 30 musicians. It was like a dream, an indescribable feeling. It is this memory which has motivated me to create this project, in order to give dancers in Europe the chance to experience this dream within an educational framework which will also benefit them in terms of their professional development”.
Nesma
Live Music
Workshops
Coaching
You are the Star
Nesma and the Raks Madrid Orchestra
Nesma
With her experience and dedication, Nesma is undoubtedly one of the dancers with greatest knowledge and mastery of Egyptian music. She developed her career as a soloist in Cairo between 1993 and 1998, where she performed on a daily basis with an orchestra of 30 musicians in the top venues in the city.
In 1998 she produced her first album and in 2004 she created her own label Nesma Music. Since then she has produced numerous recordings for albums and dance shows.
Workshops:
LECTURE CLASSES
PERFORM WITH LIVE MUSIC
TAQSIM IMPROVISATION
Full program coming soon

The Orchestra
Created by Nesma for the Raks Madrid Festival, it is made up of top performers of Arabic music.
Workshops and Shows:
WORKSHOP ACCOMPANIMENT
PERFORMANCE AT RAKS MADRID NIGHTS
Programme coming soon
How was Raks Madrid 2018 ?