For Night, the first part of a trilogy, the Lebanese choreographer and theater maker Ali Chahrour drew inspiration from Arabic stories, legends, and poems relating to love. The dance-theater work was inspired by the dense archive of love and romance in classical Arabic poetry and from contemporary stories of lovers and their cruel separations. It references stories from the cultural memory of the Levant and Mesopotamia about the fate of lovers who challenged social and religious systems, only to be punished with separation, and it shows the full emotional impact of love, from destructive passion to ardent desire and hushed farewell.

Born in Beirut in 1989, Ali Chahrour studied theater and dance in both his native city and various schools in Europe, creating a language inspired by Arab myths and by the political, social, and religious context of his country. Through these art forms, he explores the deep relationships between the body and movement, between tradition and modernity.

Performed in Arabic with English supertitles.