Omar Rajeh is a choreographer and dancer, founder and artistic director of Maqamat. After establishing his base in Lebanon in 2002, he relocated to Lyon in 2020, continuing to create, tour, and develop projects between Lebanon, France, and internationally.

Across more than twenty choreographic works presented on major international stages, Rajeh develops a practice that questions the politics of gatherings and relationships. He treats space as a living composition of meaning: how it is arranged, occupied, and negotiated shapes the nature of relationships. His recent production Dance People (2025) stands as a landmark in his trajectory: an engaged and festive work that challenges power structures and draws the audience into a shared choreographic situation, where participation becomes a way of rethinking presence, hierarchy, and encounter.

Central to his approach is maqam, a practice of instant composition and creation in the moment. It is a continuous process of folding, growing, and becoming that is organising space through relationships rather than form.  MAQAM approaches the body as a living constellation of shifting centers, and an emerging architecture of internal impulses. They interact to shape space in real time. It is rooted in a conceptual and physical approach that conceives the body as “multi-bodies” - a constellation of centers of signification in constant dialogue. Dance moves beyond form and intellect, it expands into a journey of sensorial channels, where movement unfolds outside of representation, towards generating situations of urgency and being. The body is constantly organising, accumulating, and becoming.

Rajeh’s artistic work is inseparable from the cultural ecosystems he has initiated and sustained. He founded BIPOD – Beirut International Platform of Dance, one of the key contemporary dance platforms in the Levant, and co-founded the Masahat network, connecting artists and organizations worldwide. He initiated Takween, an intensive training program, and Moultaqa Leymoun, a platform supporting young and established choreographers through accompaniment, visibility, and exchange.

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 dedicated to artistic circulation, documentation of practices, and new forms of encounter between artists, structures, and publics.

For his contribution to culture, he was distinguished by the French Ministry of Culture as Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.