Rabat – Plans were announced to celebrate the Taskiwine dance this Saturday. The celebration will take place in Taroudant, a small city in Southern Morocco between Agadir and Ouarzazate. The name originates from “Tiskt,” the powder horn each dancer wears on their left shoulder.
Dancers primarily move their shoulders to the rhythm of flutes and tambourines, while retelling old stories of heroism and bravery.
Taskiwine, a traditional Amazigh martial art dance, was declared a part of the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage last year. The list was made to highlight cultural practices around the world that were potentially in danger of being lost due to globalization, according to UNESCO.
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Thankfully in recent years, “there has been a growing collective awareness within communities…to safeguard the practice,” says UNESCO.
In addition to Saturday, organizers are also planning another festival in August of next year. Although the tradition is still only practiced by a small number of tribes in the far Western Atlas mountains, efforts are coming in from all over Morocco due to the UNESCO designation, which instructs “communities, state institutions, civil society and all relevant actors to work together to revitalize, safeguard and promote this ancestral dance,” according to sources.
