How do you grow up, love and dream under occupation? With her new creation Shabaab, Palestinian choreographer Samar Haddad King tells the story of the deep friendship between two men, Mohamed and Mahmoud, two Palestinian friends bound together since childhood. Together, they revisit memories, bursts of laughter and dreams for the future, but also the silences and compromises imposed by colonial violence.

On stage, a haunting puppet created by Sipho Ngxola becomes the vessel for their doubled selves. It opens pathways towards the past, imagined futures, lives that might have been, and buried secrets. Blending dance, theatre and puppetry, Shabaab — “youth” in Arabic — brings forth an intimate memoryscape where friendship becomes a space of survival, tenderness and resistance.

Founded in New York in 2005, Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre develops politically engaged performances and educational projects that connect art, transmission and Palestinian narratives across the world.