For Lebanese director and choreographer Ali Chahrour, art is inseparable from the present moment. Inspired by true stories of survival and resistance, When I Saw the Sea is a powerful new theater work that confronts Lebanon’s kafala system — a structure that binds migrant domestic workers to their employers and enables widespread exploitation, abuse, and erasure.

In this work that dissolves boundaries between dance, music, and theater, they transform personal trauma into collective strength, weaving Arabic and Ethiopian melodies into a powerful act of remembrance and defiance. Live musicians from Syria and Lebanon help to create an intimate portrait of courage, dignity, and the urgent demand for justice.

“When I Saw the Sea celebrates the strength of these women to endure and the transformation of that strength into a path of liberation.” (Broadway World) The title of the piece comes from a 2024 video of a woman who had been abandoned on a steep mountain road in Beirut without papers, money, or any resources by an employer fleeing war. Despite everything, she was smiling and said, “It’s the first time I’ve seen the sea here in Lebanon, and its horizon.”