KARACHI: Under the bright stage lights of the Arts Council of Pakistan, Palestinian dancer Yousef Sbieh moves with a blend of grace and restrained anguish, portraying a bird yearning for unity in the allegorical production “Conference of the Birds,” inspired by a 12th-century Sufi poem. The 33-year-old artist from Jerusalem performs as part of the World Culture Festival, which brings together participants from 141 countries, carrying with him the emotional weight of a home engulfed by conflict.
Sbieh assumes the identity of a finch, revered across Palestine where it often symbolizes freedom, endurance and grace in folklore and poetry.
“My role in this performance is the bird, the finch, and we call it in Arabic Hassoun,” he told Arab News. “It’s a very popular bird that exists in Palestine and it’s a species that people take care of and they’re proud when they have it.”
While travelling as a freelance artist,he said that he remains tied to Jerusalem, where his family continues to face “tough situations and injustice.”
For Sbieh, the stage mirrors lived reality. He describes the ensemble and its creative process as a reflection of how people can live in peace, with “everyone’s life respected and having the same value.”
The production, an adaptation of Farid ud-Din Attar's legendary Persian poem, in which the birds of the world embark on a perilous quest to find the legendary Simorgh, a mythical bird symbolizing divine unity and self-realization. In the Sufi allegory, the seekers ultimately learn that the divine presence they seek is reflected within their own collective.
Director and choreographer Wendy Jehlen said their staging frames the poem as a universal human journey.
“The journey that is humanity — we have no choice but to take it together, in all our glorious diversity,” she told Arab News, describing the production.
Despite human divisions, she continued, “the underlying reality of humanity is that we are one.”
Jehlen said Sbieh’s presence reshaped the context of the performance after he joined the company in 2023 when an “Egyptian bird,” Ibrahim, couldn’t make it due to issues of travel permission. She recalled the Palestinian artist's first rehearsals in Ramallah, noting that when he “danced running up against the wall and trying to get through this wall, it was clear that he had to stay with us.”
The director, who said her grandparents were Holocaust survivors, described herself as “extremely anti-Zionist” and said the global climate after October 2023 had added urgency to their artistic production.
“This is really the most important story that can be told right now,” she said, pointing to the performance’s thematic focus on exile and displacement.
With his family still in Jerusalem, Sbieh said he feels a persistent tension between his own safety and the suffering of Palestinians, describing it as a constant emotional burden.
“I have a little bit of guilt because I feel like even living is some sort of a privilege where I come from nowadays,” he said.
He said there was relative stability in Jerusalem for Palestinians, noting, “I cannot compare my situation to anyone who comes from Gaza.”
Sbieh said he had lost contact with fellow artists he once worked with in Gaza.
“I have no clue what happened with them, to be honest,” he said.
With communication cut and much of the Palestinian enclave devastated, he said that he felt a sense of powerlessness, adding that he considered artistic expression itself to be an obligation.
For him, performing abroad while others struggle for survival means artists must become “the voice of the people who don’t have a voice.”
“We should remind the world that we have the same rights, we have the same human rights as everyone else,” he added.
Sbieh said his community’s endurance forms the central part of its story.
“We’re very resilient people," he continued. "It has been over 75 years of people trying to wipe us off but that’s not going to happen.”
“Palestine has always existed with people who are educated, who love to share, who love to talk with people from different cultures," he added. "This festival is also a reminder of that.”
