Omar Rajeh is a choreographer, dancer, and the founder and artistic director of Maqamat. Initially based in Lebanon since 2002, he relocated to Lyon in 2020, continuing to create and develop projects between Lebanon, France, and internationally. He was distinguished by the French Ministry of Culture with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to culture.

Across more than twenty choreographic works, Rajeh has forged a body of creation that is politically, socially, and artistically critical, performed on major international stages. His latest production, Dance People (2025), stands as a landmark in his trajectory—an engaged and festive work that challenges power structures, redefines collective space, and celebrates shared presence with audiences.

Central to his practice is Circling, a conceptual and physical approach that he has developed, and that conceives the body as bodies—a multiplicity of centers, significations, and points of communication. Circling resists reducing dance to pure kinetic or aesthetic form; it expands it into an act of expression, presence, and confrontation. Through this lens, Rajeh’s work becomes a critical and political gesture, engaging questions of power, community, and togetherness, and highlighting dance as a space of dialogue and resistance.

Rajeh is also the founder of BIPOD – Beirut International Platform of Dance, co-founder of the Masahat network, and the initiator of Takween (intensive training program) and Moultaqa Leymoun (platform supporting Arab choreographers). In 2017, he established Citerne Beirut, a pioneering choreographic and cultural center in Lebanon. After its forced dismantling in 2019, he created Citerne.live in France, a digital platform fostering artistic exchange and visibility.