SARAH

Project |TAG Dance Theater | NYC www.project-tag.com

WORK IN PROGRESS 2025-26. Residence at Bethany Arts Community April 2025

SARAH is a dance-theater creation by Iraqi-Kurdish Choreographer Hussein Smko, inspired by the journey of Hussein’s sister, Sarah.

In this production, the theater is transformed into a courthouse under the Ishtar Gates of Babylon where a woman is on trial in a time of war. As an echo to Sarah’s story, the voice of the great Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar brings the intensity of her love to a full raging battle. Ishtar then walks to the underworld and brings back to Sarah’s wedding, soldiers from the battle fields as well as Saddam Hussein, the real criminal of History on trial for bombing civilians with Sarin gas.  History repeats itself as a great cycle of birth, violence and death.  

SARAH is “DOCU-DANCE” performance based on the oldest text ever written, Ishtar’s tablet (3,000 BCE), as well as a real transcript of Saddam Hussein’s trial and Hussein’s poems.

Hussein Smko |Director, Choreographer, Producer Marion Schoevaert | Co-Director, Producer

Kevork Mourad  | Artist  Masatora Goya| Music Composer Mizuho Kappa | Associate Artistic Director

Dancers: Kamryn Vaulx, Hussein Smko, Danny Bryck, Ino Badanjak, Mizuho Kappa, Maggy Van Den Heuvel, Jonathan Colafrancesco, Manish Chauhan, Jessica Marchand, Michaela Esteben, Chakir Bourahla, Aurora Vaughen, Alex Schmidt, music from composer Layale Chaker