Samar Haddad
Samar graduated cum-laude with honors in choreography from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program under the tutelage of Kazuko Hirabayashi. She has studied composition under Kazuko Hirabayashi and Joanna Mendl-Shaw, the Forsythe modalities with Helen Pickett and improvisation with Joanna Mendl-Shaw. In the spring of 2005, Samar was selected as an Emerging Choreographer for E-Moves at Aaron Davis Hall (now HarlemStage). Soon after, her work was commissioned by contemporary ballet company Configuration Dance in Cape Cod, then under the direction of Kathy Batchellor and Joseph Cipolla. In the same year, Samar received the year long Swing Space Grant from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in collaboration with the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. During this residency, Samar formed Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre. In 2006 Samar was presented by Joyce SoHo as an emerging choreographer in their annual Joyce SoHo Presents series. Later in that same year, Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre self-presented a full season at Joyce SoHo. She has taught repertory, improvisation, and technique workshops in Amman, Jordan; Bethlehem and Ramallah, Palestine; Burgos and Valencia, Spain; and Huntington, England. She has created five solos commissioned by graduating seniors of the Ailey School and was selected to participate in E-Moves as an Evolving Artist in April 2009. In 2010, she was the recipient of the National Choreography Competition for Hubbard Street 2, under the direction of Taryn Kaschock Russell, where she created a new work for the company.
