Born in Beirut, the choreographer and dancer Ali Chahrour creates a movement language freed from Western codes and models, reflecting his culture and the political, social, and religious context in which he lives.

In an earlier series of works—his trilogy on death, Fatmeh (2014), Leila’s Death (2015), and May He Rise and Smell the Fragrance (2017)—he drew on funeral rituals, blending tradition with a striking sense of modernity.

He later began a second series dedicated to love, including Night (2019), Told by My Mother (2021), The Love Behind My Eyes (winner of the ZKB Patronage Prize at the 2022 Zurich Theater Spektakel), and Iza Hawa (2023).

Combining lyrical poetry with interwoven bodies, his performances have been presented at the Avignon Festival in 2016, 2018, 2022, and 2025, as well as at many other festivals worldwide.

When I Saw the Sea (2025) is part of a new trilogy exploring the theme of “fear.”