Samar Haddad King, (Director/Composer/Writer) Artistic Director of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (YSDT).
YSDT has been commissioned throughout the US and Arab World by Hubbard Street 2 (Chicago); Palest’In and Out Festival (Paris); Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival and others. She was a 2018 resident artist at Chaillot – théâtre national de la Danse (Paris), 2019/20 Resident Fellow at The Center for Ballet and the Arts (CBA) at NYU and 2021 Toulmin Creator (CBA/National Sawdust). Samar co-authored a chapter on dance in the Arab World for the 2nd edition of Contemporary Choreography (Routledge, January 2018) and frequently lectures on her transnational, cross-disciplinary work. Recent accomplishments include a 2023 Creative Capital: Wild Futures award; site specific commissions for “The Walk” an international festival produced by THE OFFICE Performing Arts (Alabama, 2023), St. Ann’s Warehouse (NYC, 2022) and by Good Chance Theatre (France, 2021); and A.R.T. commission for choreography for “We Live in Cairo” (Boston, 2019). Currently she is creating two world premieres Gathering to be performed by YSDT at The Shed (NYC, 2024)) and co-creating a work she’s directing for the Hong Kong Arts Festival (Hong Kong, 2024) while developing an online performing arts training for Arabic speakers.
