Chesterfield families can catch a rare live performance of dabke, a UNESCO-recognized Palestinian folk dance, at one of west St. Louis County's most sought-after performance venues on Saturday, August 1.

Canaan Wellspring, a St. Louis-based Palestinian dance troupe founded in 2024 by Hanan Hamed, performs its show "Jafra" at the Purser Center at Logan University, 1851 Schoettler Road, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The 14-dance program explores regional styles of dabke, a Levantine tradition rooted in a centuries-old practice of villagers stomping mud in unison to seal rooftops before winter. UNESCO added dabke to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2023.

A portion of every ticket sold benefits Autism Superhero Palestine, a nonprofit that Hamed also founded. The organization provides family support groups, parent training, therapy resources, and recreational programs for autistic children and their families in the West Bank.

Hamed, who previously coached dabke in the Palestinian territories, is herself the mother of an autistic son. She told STLPR's St. Louis on the Air that the nonprofit once operated in Gaza but lost most of the families it served there. It has since refocused on the West Bank, where many families cannot access therapy services. Unofficial estimates suggest about 5,000 autistic children live across the Palestinian territories.

"There's just one thing I want them to take away: that we are human beings," Hamed said. "We dance. We love life. We have music. We have stories. We have a history. We are proud of who we are."

Dancer Sarah Zakarneh, a member since the troupe's first practice in the basement of the Turkish American Society, said joining Canaan Wellspring connected her to a heritage she had only known on a surface level growing up.

The Purser Center's Walters Auditorium seats up to 900 on Logan University's 112-acre Chesterfield campus. Tickets start at $40 and are available at zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/jafra-in-stlouis.