Moroccan Folklore: Troupes, Dances and Music by Region

There is no single Moroccan folklore, but a mosaic: every valley, plain and oasis has its own dance, rhythm and costume. An evening of troupes is therefore a journey across the country — from the Middle Atlas to the Sahara, in about an hour.

Ahwach and ahidous: the circle dances of the Atlas

In the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas, ahwach gathers a whole village: the men beat frame drums warmed over a fire to tighten the skin, the women answer in song, and the circle closes in as the tempo rises. In the Middle Atlas, ahidous follows the same idea in a tight, rippling line, shoulder to shoulder, with improvised poetic duels between the singers.

These are community dances, not performances: you join through your neighbours and your family, and the song is there to tell the life of the village as much as to make people dance.

The Gnawa: trance and the guembri

The Gnawa brotherhoods descend from people brought from sub-Saharan Africa. Their music blends a spiritual repertoire, rhythms from south of the Sahara and Sufi elements. The maâlem — the master — plays the guembri, a three-stringed bass lute with a skin-covered body, while the group snaps the krakebs, large iron castanets.

The traditional ceremony, the lila, lasts all night and calls on trance. What you see on stage is a short, festive form of it: the jumping step, the tasselled caps spun in circles, the rhythm climbing. Gnawa practices were inscribed by UNESCO in 2019.

Dekka marrakchia: the rhythm of the city

Marrakech has its own form: the dekka marrakchia, a purely percussive ensemble in which dozens of seated men strike taarijas and bendirs while singing in unison. It is traditionally heard at Achoura and at the city's great celebrations. It is ensemble music with no soloist, built on ever faster restarts.

The guedra and the traditions of the south

From the Guelmim region, on the edge of the Sahara, the guedra is danced on the knees. The name is that of the cooking pot whose stretched skin serves as the drum. The veiled dancer does not move across the floor: everything happens in the hands, the fingers and the torso, over a slow rhythm that gradually accelerates. It is one of the most hypnotic dances in the Moroccan repertoire.

Further south still, the Moussem of Tan-Tan gathers more than thirty nomadic tribes each year around music, poetry and camel races; UNESCO inscribed it in 2008.

Taskiwin, aita and the rarer repertoires

Taskiwin is a martial dance of the western High Atlas, named after the richly decorated horn each dancer carries. Threatened with disappearance, it was inscribed by UNESCO in 2017 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding — the list that calls for active measures to pass a tradition on.

In the Atlantic plains, aita is a rural song carried by the chikhates, professional women singers whose repertoire tells of love, exile and resistance. Long looked down on, it is now recognised as one of the country's great popular repertoires.

Recognising the instruments

• Bendir: a large frame drum with snares stretched under the skin, which give it its buzzing edge.
• Taarija: a small goblet-shaped clay drum, held under the arm.
• Tbel: a bass drum struck with a curved stick to mark the step.
• Guembri (or hajhouj): the Gnawa three-stringed bass lute, a wooden body covered with skin.
• Krakebs: forged iron castanets, played in pairs.
• Ghaita: a powerful oboe played with circular breathing, loud enough to carry across a whole square.
• Violin: held upright, resting on the knee, in the Arab-Andalusian manner.

Where to see Moroccan folklore in Marrakech

Jemaa el-Fna square, inscribed by UNESCO in 2008 for its cultural space, is still the country's leading popular theatre: storytellers, Gnawa, snake charmers, circles that form and dissolve. Festivals — the Gnaoua festival in Essaouira, the popular arts festival in Marrakech — bring the best troupes together on fixed dates.

To see several regions in one evening, a dinner show is the most direct format. At Chez Ali, about ten troupes parade between the tables during dinner: Zayane from Khenifra, Tiskiwine from Amizmiz, Kelaa M'Gouna, Gnawa, Imintanout, ahwach from Ouarzazate, ahwach from the Ourika valley, the dekka of Marrakech, Aït Ben Haddou and guedra. The Fantasia follows, in the arena.

Frequently asked questions

Read next

• Fantasia in Morocco: the history of tbourida
• The Barb horse in Morocco
• The evening programme

Sources: UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: Gnawa (2019), cultural space of Jemaa el-Fna square (2008), Moussem of Tan-Tan (2008); List in Need of Urgent Safeguarding: Taskiwin (2017). Details of the evening, the menus and the prices are those of Chez Ali Marrakech, updated in September 2026.