Projects with YSDT: Frozen Belief, Hiyaat Noor, Lahom fil Hiyaat, Layered Identity, Liquid Renaissance, Skirt Dance, The Store, Still/Moving, Ummi, bound, Against a Hard Surface, Last Ward, The Playground, 3 x 13 film, When the waves have come and gone, When fear is a raging bull, When all the children gather, Gathering

Zoe Rabinowitz is the Executive Director and a founding member of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre. Originally from Vermont, Zoe graduated from the Walnut Hill School for the Arts before earning her BFA in Dance from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, with additional studies at De Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (Netherlands). She has performed with artists including INSPIRIT: a dance company, JoAnna Mendl Shaw/Equus Projects, MBDance, The Movement Party, Nia Love/Blacksmith’s Daughter, Urban Bush Women, and Anne Zuerner. Her own work for stage and film has been presented throughout the US, and abroad in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Mexico, and South Korea. In recognition of her work as a leader in the non-profit field, Zoe was awarded a 2020 NYFA Emerging Leaders Fellowship and selected as a New York Community Trust Leadership Fellow in the same year. 

http://www.zoerabinowitz.com/

Projects with YSDT: Gathering: New York City

Born in Malaysia & raised in Kuwait, Dahlia Khair grew up outside of the US as a Palestinian-Malaysian expat with her family. After receiving her B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina, she moved to New York City, working as an artist with United Talent Agency. She has had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Mandy Moore, Tanisha Scott, Brian Friedman, Charm LaDonna, Luam Keflezy, and more! Dahlia has also been featured on GQ Middle East, Paper Magazine, NatGeo, and Schön Magazine as an upcoming artist, and has most recently been awarded the GALLIM Moving Artist Residency in 2022.

Projects with YSDT: The Store, Frozen Belief, Skirt Dance, Penelope, Lahom Haq, 3 x 13 film, Last Ward

Kristin Clotfelter co-directs Studio C Projects, a collaborative investigating intersections of movement, design and performance; is Associate Artistic Director of Barriskill Dance Theater School, and teaches dance at Duke University. Kristin has been a member of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre since 2005 and Susan Marshall & Company since 2011. Additional performance credits include: The Metropolitan Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, State Theater of Kassel in Germany, and Punchdrunk’s off-Broadway show, Sleep No More (as Lady MacDuff). She has been awarded residencies through Durham Independent Dance Artists, Tobacco Road Dance Productions, and Dance Omi. Kristin holds a BFA with honors and a minor in Visual Arts from the Alvin Ailey/Fordham University program and an MFA from the University of the Arts. http://studiocprojects.com/

Projects with YSDT:  bound, The Playground, Against a Hard Surface, Last Ward, 3 x 13 film, Gathering, Coin Toss Noah

Mohammed has won various break-dance battles in Palestine and been involved in many international and local projects including: Badke, a co-production between KVS, le ballets  C de la B & A.M. Qattan Foundation and directed by Koen Augustijnen, Rosalba Torres & Hildegard De Vuyest (2013-16 Brussels, Belgium and international tours); B by Koen Augustijnen and Rosalba Torres Guerrero (2016-2018 South Africa, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and France); Nomads Dance Camp directed by Dina Abu Hamdan with choreographers Jorge Crecis, Taoufiq Izzediou, and Samar Haddad King (2014, Jordan); Naji alli with Botega Dance Company directed by Enzo Celli (2009, Italy); Floor wars Battle champion (2012; Copenhagen, Denmark); The Playground by YSDT directed by Samar Haddad King (2013, Palestine and 2018, Belgium); and festivals in Spain and Greece touring Palestinian traditional dance (2004-2005). Mohammed is also a puppeteer for the Walk with Little Amal.

Projects with YSDT:  Last Ward, when fear is a raging bull, Gathering

Waseem Alzer has been a performer and teaching artist with YSDT since 2022. He firmly believes in the transformative power of theater to change the world.

Projects with YSDT: Against a Hard Surface, Among the Ruins, bound, Frozen Belief, Hiyaat Noor, Layered Identity, Skirt Dance, The Store, Last Ward, The Playground, 3 x 13 film, When the waves have come and gone, Gathering: New York City

Yukari Osaka is originally from Kobe, Japan. Yukari began her dance career at Sadamatsu-Hamada Ballet in Japan. She has danced for Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre as a founding member since 2005. Osaka has appeared in various dance/theatre festivals and productions including Dance Biennale Tokyo (Japan), Downtown Dance Festival (NY, USA), Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival (Palestine), opera Les Contes D’Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera and musical Phantom among others. She is also a Director of ENTERART a dance performance project based in Kobe, Japan. Yukari recently co-directed a performance at the renewal opening ceremony of the most traffic-filled Sankita Plaza in Kobe, Japan. Yukari is currently a puppeteer with the Walk with Little Amal.

Projects with YSDT: Against a Hard Surface, The Playground, Last Ward, Gathering: Jenin, Coin Toss

Past: Yousef Sbeih is a Jerusalem, Palestine based dancer. He received a BA degree in Marketing & Business from Birzeit University (2015), and participated in Yante Youth, Art & Levante, I-Can-Move training of trainers program to become a Community Dance Trainer in 2014-15. In 2016 Yousef worked as a dance teacher at Sareyyet Ramallah as well as a trainer and Staff member in the production of AJAL performance in Berlin. He has performed in several productions including: Maqamat Beit El Raqs Dance week in chouf, Lebanon (2016), Intifada#3 (2016), Opening of the Palestinian museum (2016), Sideways Rain (2016), Smoked Fish (2015), Serendipity (2014). Yousef was an apprentice with Carte Blanche–The Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance in 2017.

Projects with Samar Haddad King: Against a Hard Surface (YSDT), Last Ward (YSDT), Opening of the Palestinian Museum, Dry Mud, a visual concert (Shiber Hur); Azza (Shibur Hur) and The Lanterns of the King Galilee and Asmahan (Palestinian National Theatre el-Hakawati);Hoota (Sard), The walk productions: when the waves have come and gone, when fear is a raging bull, when all the children gather
Amir Nizar Zuabi is an award winning Theater writer & Director and Artistic Director of ShiberHur theater company, an associated director of Young Vic London, and a member of the United Theaters Europe for artistic achievement. Writing and directing credits include I am Yusuf and This is my Brother, In the Penal Colony, Alive From Palestine, Oh My Sweet Land, The Beloved,(co-produced by ShiberHur/Young Vic) Azza, West of us the sea, Mid Spring Musical, Dry Mud (ShiberHur), and Against A Hard Surface (YSDT). Directing credits includes: Samson and Delilah (Flanders Opera, Antwerp) Jidarriya by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (Edinburgh International Festival, Bouffes du Nord and world tour). Forget Herostratus, le Mallade Imaginer, War or More, Sneeze, Deep Sorrow, Fall Tale, When The World Was Green, The Lanterns Of The King Of Galilee, Taha, Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company). Currently Zuabi is writing a play for the National Theatre London and Artistic Director of The Walk with Little Amal.

Projects with YSDT: bound, Against a Hard Surface, Last Ward, I am, Gathering

Muaz Aljubeh is a Jerusalem based, Palestinian lighting designer who has been working in the field since 1995. He was the technical director for Al-Kasaba Theatre and Cinematheque for almost 20 years and is currently the technical director for the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival since its founding in 2006. He has created light for more than 30 local productions, which have toured nationally and internationally. His work has been seen in notable theaters and festivals such as Tokyo Art International Festival (Japan), Carthage theatrical Days Festival (Tunisia), Young Vic Theatre (United Kingdom), The Avignon Festival (France), and the Institute De La Monde Arab (France). Currently, Muaz is also the technical director for Khashabi Theatre and The Walk with Little Amal.

Projects with YSDT: Frozen Belief, Hiyaat Noor, Lahom fil Hiyaat, Liquid Renaissance, Skirt Dance, The Store, Still/Moving, bound, When fear is a raging bull, Gathering

Stephanie Sutherland (she/her) is a proud founding member of YSDT, and is thrilled to be part of the production team as Assistant Director of Gathering. Previously, she served as Rehearsal Director and assistant to Samar Haddad King on YSDT’s collaboration with Little Amal’s The Walk NYC (2022). As a dancer/actor/singer, she has worked all over the world in dance, theater, film/tv, fashion, music, and comedy. Stephanie is also a certified Intimacy Director through IDC, movement director, and choreographer for theater, film, and opera. She is a graduate of the Fordham University/Alvin Ailey BFA program, and continues to work with Fordham as a guest lecturer. Highlights include: performing- YSDT; Jennifer Muller’s The Works; “People, Places, & Things” (off-Broadway); intn’l tour of West Side Story with La Scala Opera; BodyStories Dance; Grounded Aerial Dance Theater. Intimacy Direction & Choreography- La Rondine; La Finta; Orphee; Midsummer Night’s Dream; Down the Road; The Wedding Gift; Entertaining Mr. Sloane. For more information visit stephaniesutherland.com, or @stephaniesland.