Transamericas Festival | The family stories of Ali Chahrour

Can art save lives? When combined with unwavering motherly love, the answer is yes. At least that’s the opinion of Lebanese choreographer Ali Chahrour, visiting the Festival TransAmériques (FTA) – which begins Wednesday – with his show From the time my mother used to tell.

The history of the Chahrour family is not a long, quiet river. Like thousands of others in Beirut, she has to deal with the problems that have shaken the country of Cedar for decades: political insecurity, the rise of certain religious groups, economic crisis…

For the Chahrour, this difficult situation crystallized in the disappearance of Hassan, the choreographer’s cousin. Born to a Syrian father (which prevents him from having Lebanese citizenship), he had to return to Syria in 2015 to get his papers in order. He never came back.

“For eight years, my aunt Fatmeh did everything to find her son. Even suffering from the cancer that took her away, even during her last transfer to the hospital, she did not stop looking for him for a second,” explains Ali Chahrour, contacted at his home in Beirut before his arrival in Montreal.

This tragedy marked the family, while another was brewing. Abbas, the teenage son of a paternal cousin named Leila, underwent training to go fight in Syria. His goal: to become a martyr.

Knowing this, the choreographer offered the young man a crazy, but less deadly, adventure: dancing on stage with his mother in a show based around the power of maternal love.

Abbas ended up accepting, with the support of his mother who chased out of her home the representatives of the religious sect who had recruited her 15-year-old son. “A very courageous gesture,” underlines Ali Chahrour.

For three years, mother and son have been dancing on stages around the world with professional performers. They found within the group of actors, dancers and musicians a second family to support them…

From the time my mother used to tell therefore represents the double victory of a mother to keep her son alive, but also art that can influence the destiny of a human being.

The story behind closed doors

For the choreographer, giving birth to this very intimate show was not easy. “It was a difficult process, very emotionally intense. But for me, telling stories like these is essential to keep them alive. It’s part of my research to shine a light on those who left this world without getting the justice they deserved. »

If his shows are very imbued with the particular context in which he lives and works, the fact remains that Ali Chahrour is more interested in the stories that happen behind the closed doors of Beirut than in those that we read on the front pages of the newspapers. . “The show still allows us to understand the current context in Lebanon. However, I want to create a new heroism. And new heroes. »

His heroes are in fact mainly heroines, because the choreographer says he is very inspired in his work by women in general, and mothers in particular for this show.

“The women in my family are powerful women. My mother raised me in difficult conditions, without a father figure at home, since my father died when I was 13 years old. She never wanted anything in return. »

However, when words fail, Ali Chahrour knows what he has to do: dance. Although he studied theater in Beirut in his youth – because no dance training was offered in Lebanon – it was mainly through movement that he found his true voice. “In this show, there is music, text, dance… But dance allows me to show these emotions that cannot be described. The body takes over from speech. »

With this rising star who will be on his second visit to the FTA (he presented May He Rise and Smell the Fragrance in 2019), the dance does without superfluous artifice. “All my choreographies tend to highlight the simplicity and power of gesture. For me, looks are very important. In From the time my mother used to tell, we give ourselves the luxury of looking each other straight in the eye. We really take the time to see each other. Considering the situation we live in in Lebanon, I am grateful to still be able to look those I love in the eyes. »

Another particularity that characterizes his work: this meeting between professional artists and non-actors. “I like the clash it causes. There is a real exchange. Everyone has their own way of moving and it is the mixture of the two courses – the very technical one and the amateur one – which creates the scenes. I truly believe that everyone can dance. We just have to be honest and transparent with the way we move. Without imposing boundaries. Non-dancers inspire me in my search towards minimalism of movement. »

From the time my mother used to tell is presented on May 22, 23 and 24 at the Monument-National. The 18^e edition of the Festival TransAmériques takes place from May 22 to June 5 in Montreal.

Visit the show page

Consult the complete FTA program

Also see at the FTA

asses. masses

Half past seven gaming to reflect on the consequences of post-industrialism: this is what Canadian artists Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim offer with this interactive digital work in 10 episodes where we follow donkeys who seek to regain their jobs, lost to the hands of machines. The spectators here become the performers of this iconoclastic spectacle with strong political and social content.

May 25 (in French) and May 1^er June (in English), at the Centaur Theater

Visit the show page

Stéphanie Morin, The Press

5 to 7 with Angelo Barsetti

For more than 35 years, Angelo Barsetti has used his talent to apply makeup and photograph theater performers. The one who worked with André Brassard, Wajdi Mouawad, Brigitte Haentjens and several others will meet the public in a 5 to 7 dedicated to him. On the program for this event on the sidelines of the FTA hosted by Cédric Delorme-Bouchard: extracts from shows, archives and testimonies. Please note: several other meetings and parallel activities are offered during the festival.

May 23 at 5 p.m. at FTA HQ

Visit the event page

Stéphanie Morin, The Press

In the heart of the rose (Genealogy of a sadness)

For his brand new show, Montreal director Jérémie Niel took on the play by Pierre Perrault, created in 1963. In this fable set on an island in the middle of the Gulf, the daily life of the Father, the Mother and the Girl is disturbed by the shipwreck of a captain and his sailor. Jérémie Niel has brought together a solid cast here – with Sébastien Ricard, Émile Schneider and Evelyne de la Chenelière in particular – to inhabit a set magnified by video and soundscapes.

From May 25 to 29 at Espace Libre

Visit the show page

Stéphanie Morin, The Press

Rinse

The FTA welcomes dancer and choreographer Amrita Hepi, an artist of dual indigenous Bundjalung (Australia) and Ngāpuhi (New Zealand, or Aotearoa, in the Maori language). The one who was named among the 30 artists under 30 by Forbes in 2018 offers experimental dance at the crossroads of disciplines, his research exploring dance and the body as a place of memory and resistance. She comes with Rinse, a solo which is interested in the beginnings – those of civilizations, of a romance, of a theory –, the excitement which carries them and the inertia which awaits them. A choreographic game where bodies and words set the table.

From May 25 to 30, at the Red Theater of the Conservatory

Visit the show page

Iris Gagnon-Paradis, The Press

Meanwhile, at OFFTA…

Who says FTA says OFFTA, a smaller parallel festival which gives pride of place to emerging artists. This year, 13 artistic offerings are offered in various locations in Montreal, including Place de la Paix for free performances. Among the shows not to be missed: a dance solo by Mecdy Mystic Rootz at MAI, a conference (entitled Dead People Are Liking Things On Facebook) on the evolution of funeral rites at Prospero or a thriller halfway between theater and visual arts – Outdoor/Night – presented at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui.

From May 24 to June 2

Visit the OFFTA website

Stéphanie Morin, The Press