After four years of absence from the Festival TransAmériques (FTA), the Lebanese choreographer Ali Chahrour returns with his piece كما روتها أمي – From the time when my mother told, which will celebrate its North American premiere. Opening show of the 18th edition of the FTA, this work exalts through song, music and dance the immeasurable strength of maternal love, through two touching stories.
“This performance came from a real need, not just to do theater, but to actually save someone. As artists, we have the power to protect a life. Art is our tool,” expresses Ali Chahrour. Indeed, at the origin of the piece is the choreographer’s family history. He talks about the story of his aunt Fatmeh, whose son disappeared in Syria. After seven years of searching, she died without finding him. The second story told through the play is that of Leila, Fatmeh’s cousin, who did everything to save her son, who had gone to fight in Syria. “Thanks to this creation, Leila found her son. The two of them dance together on stage. Thanks to us, the theater family, we celebrate this joy of a successful mother,” rejoices Mr. Chahrour.
With كما روتها أمي – From the time my mother used to tell, Ali Chahrour wishes to highlight the struggles, victories and failures of mothers, particularly in his country. “We never show these little stories, they remain hidden in homes, especially in the Arab world. My goal is to highlight and archive these individual stories, which no one mentions, but which are important, primordial, because they reveal the political and social context of a country,” confides the artist.
From the beginning of his creation, Ali Chahrour surrounded himself with Hala Omran, a multidisciplinary Syrian performer, with whom he has collaborated since 2016. “Before seeing us all together for the first rehearsal, we carried out a long research process, remembers Mme Omran in interview in the language of Molière with The duty. We delved into the Arabic musical repertoire, for example, looking for lullabies dating back to 3000 or 4000 BC. BC, studied prayers…” Thus, with two other musicians, M. Chahrour and M.me Omran first created a musical work and texts linked to the story to be told, before the choreographic research began.
Once in the studio, Ali Chahrour focuses more on the gestures of the piece. To do this, he collaborates a lot with the performers with whom he works. “What inspires me are the people with whom we create the piece. I follow their need to move, without polishing the quality of their movements. That’s what’s beautiful, the poetry of the body. And it changes from the aesthetics of dance that we are used to seeing. I don’t like to see something dishonest in the body,” he says. So, for كما روتها أمي – From the time my mother used to tell, Mr. Chahrour worked on simple movements that he said have “great power.” “Sometimes, simply positioning the body in space creates an interesting tension,” he adds.
A moving work and all the more significant
Started in 2019, the process of creating كما روتها أمي – From the time my mother used to tell was, like many other works, put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, the play had to overcome a new obstacle: the economic crisis following the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020. “She [la pièce] has survived many crises and postponements. Despite all that, we continued, but the money from production is still blocked since the collapse of the port. Our government doesn’t care about culture,” laments Mr. Chahrour.
Despite the difficulties, the choreographer and his team decided to open theaters in Lebanon and perform their play in Beirut in 2021. “It is very moving to perform here, because people completely identify with the stories that we put on stage. In every house, there are people who are missing…” he says. The play was also performed in France, Germany, but also in Brazil, always with strong reactions from the public, according to Hala Omran. “These are intimate stories and yet, even in countries very far from Lebanon, we feel a resonance. It’s so personal that it becomes universal. Everyone can identify with the mother, or the child, or just the feelings themselves, the loss, the reunion, etc. It’s very beautiful and touching to experience,” she continues.
“More than ever, we need to make these voices heard, to talk about these stories. This is the role of theater! » exclaims Ali Chahrour. Indeed, since the beginning of this creation, the world has changed a lot according to him, and even more since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “With what is happening in Palestine, reactions are different now, thinks Mme Omran. We also come to talk about our region which has suffered massacres for a long time, but here, it is intensified, and in the eyes of the whole world. » Same observation on the side of Mr. Chahrour. “In Lebanon, we are close to Gaza. People are getting murdered. We are witnesses to a genocide and we are not reacting, he concludes. In this tragic context, the impact of our performance has a whole new meaning. »