When Mountains Cry
BRIGEL GJOKA
XIEXIN DANCE THEATRE
In 2026, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is presenting When Mountains Cry by Brigel Gjoka and Xiexin Dance Theatre, in collaboration with the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, within the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival in Shanghai.
Hands. Hands that catch us as we fall, that raise us from the ground. Hands that cover our eyes when veils of sorrow arrest speech and thought. Hands that reach out in solace. Hands that come together to weave infinity. Hands, and the arms that anchor and extend them, promise to be primary raconteurs of age-old tales in Brigel Gjoka’s When Mountains Cry. Those hands and arms rise and fall and rise again in a timeless ritual invoking loss and longing. Other hands, women’s hands, gather across veiled faces in a pietà to lives steeped in separation.
Together, they tell us: a mountain cries the day it discovers its destiny, when it is no longer a tiny hill sheltered by a peak. Like the child forced to accept that the warm, protecting hand holding theirs has slipped away into the mists of Time. That they must now stand tall, become a mountain to those around them.
Text by Karthika Naïr
