When I Saw the Sea, choreography by Ali Chahrour, celebrated its European premiere on 2 June 2025 in HAU 1. Performance: Zena Moussa, Tenei Ahmad, Rania Jamal. Music: Lynn Adib, Abed Kobeissy
Blinded by a giant spotlight at center stage, the audience waits for the performance to start. It begins with a loud, dull bang. This is followed by a loud booming and thudding across the stage and through the room. This marks the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Arabic voice messages are audible. Messages of concern about families. The spotlight makes the German and English supertitles barely visible. Individuals in the audience bend forward or to the side, some hold up a hand to protect against the glare in order to be able to read the text better. It seems like everyone is in the midst of events. There is no escape.
This performance could hardly be more honest. Choreographer Ali Chahrour developed this piece together with the three dancers Rania, Zena, and Tenei. The three relate their own personal stories, which are interwoven with the kafala system1. Their telling is raw, blunt, powerful. Zena recounts a hopeful arrival in Lebanon, sleeping on the bathroom floor, the 6 pieces of cheese her employees gave her to eat for the week.
They talk. They dance, they fall, they teeter, they turn, and they hold one another. They stomp, making themselves loud and visible in the process. This is exactly what Chahrour wanted to achieve. Visibility for the invisible, who were long hidden, mistreated, and left behind in war. The choreographer does not talk about them and also does not allow them to be talked about. He gives them a voice, one that is not pitying but empowering.
The piece drags the catastrophes and crises of our time in front of our eyes. In Lebanon, the piece was shown both to those who benefited from the kafala system as well as employees who had to suffer under its repression, the choreographer explains in the subsequent audience discussion. Here in Europe, those who were perhaps recently confronted with the kafala system in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup see the piece. Chahrour is not afraid to bring these, in part, cruel stories to the stage in order to demonstrate that today’s crises are not divorced from us and our own stories. They point out how colonial conditions are still in effect today while simultaneously scrutinizing how we deal with migrants, be it in Europe or in Arabic countries.
Choreographer Chahrour not only makes us aware of a crisis, he also makes this crisis a problem for the viewers. He does this by integrating the audience into the stories of the three women. As if mesmerized, you watch the assemblage of language and Arabic music with Amharic song and dance. The musicians and performers support one another. Each tone, each movement, and each sentence flow into one another and become a powerful interaction. Without this effect, it would simply be more news about crises. However, the stories, the movements, and the music resonate.
English translation by Melissa Maldonado
1The kafala system is a common employment relationship in Arabic countries in which primarily foreign employees are bound to their employer through a form of sponsorship, which frequently leads to exploitative conditions and limited freedom.
When I Saw the Sea, by Ali Chahrour, celebrated its European premiere on 2 June 2025 in HAU1.
