This article presents a historical, ethnographic and practice-based study of dance education in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The concepts of dance learning, hegemony and counter-hegemony are analysed in the context of cross-cultural interventions in politically marginalized communities, and the theoretical concept of anti-hegemony is introduced and defined. This is followed by a historical overview of dance learning in Palestine/Occupied Palestinian Territories. Specific contemporary local dance learning processes are examined within the performing groups El-Funoun and Sareyyet Ramallah. This leads to recommendations on how improved dance education praxis might enhance local cultural autonomy and support anti-hegemony as a cultural ideal. (Contains 9 notes.)