Samar Haddad King, Artistic/Founding Director of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre and co-director of min tala, a pan-Arab dance company, graduated cum laude with honors in choreography from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program in New York City under the tutelage of Kazuko Hirabayashi.
Her work has been commissioned in the U.S. by the Ailey School, Configuration Dance, Hubbard Street 2––where she was the recipient of the National Choreography Competition––among others, and has performed at various venues such as NYC’s Joyce SoHo, HarlemStage, Citigroup Theatre, Chicago’s Harris Theater, Jacob’s Pillow and many notable international festivals.
In 2015, she was the recipient of the Prix des Jeunes Créateurs Palestiniens pour la Diversité des Expressions Artistiques. She recently completed research with curator, dramaturge, researcher and writer, Sandra Noethe with support from the Goethe Institute (Palestine) on the developing contemporary dance scene in Palestine and the creation of a more sustainable environment for young artists.
She recently finished choreographing the opening of the Palestinian Museum and the play Azza under the direction of Amir Nizar Zuabi. They are currently collaborating on new productions set to premiere in 2017. Samar is based primarily in Palestine.
