TOLD BY MY MOTHER

Perhaps the strongest voice in Lebanon’s contemporary performing arts, choreographer Ali Chahrour draws on song, music, and dance to exorcise sorrow and extol the power of maternal love in two stories lived through by his family. His relative Leila managed to save her son Abbas from a martyr’s fate; his aunt, the late Fatmeh, lost her son in Syria. In the flowing, gyrating movements of Chahrour’s choreography, Leila and Abbas embody both of these poignant stories with utter sincerity, easing the vertigo of loss. Stark gestures lead to moments of stillness when the silence of frozen time vibrates with the intensity of the performers’ gazes.

After "May He Rise and Smell the Fragrance" (FTA, 2019), Ali Chahrour and his remarkable team of musicians and performers are back with "Told by my mother," a work of memory rooted in reality that soothes sorrow and nourishes hope. Love and death go hand in hand, touching our hearts.