When I saw the sea

Ali Chahrour

Live performance

Le Grand Sud, Lille
1h10
Pass Latitudes

A dazzling light first: do we close our eyes? Then we hear singing, words, and there is dancing, performed by women so powerful we cannot look away.

Ali Chahrour will open the 2026 edition of the Latitudes Contemporaines Festival in strength and beauty, with an overwhelming and sensitive piece. When I saw the sea evokes the nightmare of the Kafala: a Lebanese system which forces migrant domestic workers into a form of modern slavery. Zena, Tenei and Rania are Ethiopian and Lebanese, three women who survived this system. Accompanied by the singer Lynn Adib and the musician Abed Kobeissy, they blend their stories in those of hundreds of other women, most often deprived of their voices. “Between the sea and the earth on fire,” they guide the movements of exploitation toward those of freedom, between the experience of death and a provocative celebration of life. Their lullabies resound like screams of resistance from the body, in an energy filled with fire, love and justice.

Accessibility disclaimers :

high volume
presence of smoke
dialogs are in arabic and amharic, with french surtitles

With the support of les Lieux Culturels Pluridisciplinaires de la ville de Lille

Biography(s)

Born in Beirut, the choreographer and dancer Ali Chahrour, invents a gesture, freed from Western codes and models, which acts as a reflection of his culture and the political, social and religious context in which he evolves. In a previous series of shows, part of his trilogy “Death” -“Fatmeh” (2014), “Leila’s Death” (2015) and “May he Rise and smell the fragrance” (2017) – he summoned funeral liturgies mixing tradition with a sharp modernity.
He then undertook a second series of performances devoted to “Love”, with “Night”(2019), followed by “Told by my Mother” (2021), “The Love Behind My Eyes” that won the ZKB Patronage prize at the 2022 Zurich Theater Spektakel, and concluded with “Iza Hawa” (2023). Combining lyrical poetry, raw emotion and tangled bodies, crafting a vivid tapestry of human connection, Ali Chahrour’s performances were presented at Avignon festival in 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2025 and in many other festivals around the world.
Currently, he is working on a new trilogy around the theme of Fear.

Credits

Direction & Choreography: Ali Chahrour
Performers: Zena Moussa, Tenei Ahmad, Rania Jamal
Music composed and performed by: Lynn Adib, Abed Kobeissy
Assistant to the direction & choreography: Chadi Aoun
Light design & Technical director: Guillaume Tesson
Assistant to the technical director: Pol Seif
Sound designer: Benoît Rave
Scenography : Guillaume Tesson, Ali Chahrour

CO-PRODUCED BY
Le Festival d’Avignon / Ibsen Scope / HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin / Arab fund for arts and culture (AFAC) / Al Mawred al Thaqafi / DeSingel Antwerp / Domino Zagreb, Perforations Festival / Holland Festival / Zürcher Theater Spektakel / Al Madina Theater

WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Beryte Theater / L’Institut Français de Beyrouth / Wicked Solutions / WASL Productions / Beit el Laffé / Raseef, Beirut / Houna center / Orient 499

SPECIAL THANKS
Kafa / Megaphone / Daraj Media / Hammana Artist House / Zoukak Theatre / Seenaryo / Mohana Ishak / Hussein Hajj / Abdallah Hatoum / Anthony Sahyoun / Ali Khedr / Eric Deniaud / Chrystèle Khodr / Raymond Zakaria / Hind Hamdan / Viany Ngemakoue / Sophie Ndongo / Jouma Fayé / Mariam Sesay / Sarie Teshome / Aisha Temam / Raheel Teshome / Mihret Birhane / Laurentine Mbekati