Dance in Open Air and Open Thought


by Clarence Fanto

BECKET- For Palestinian-American choreographer and dancer Samar Haddad King, the art of movement has always come naturally.
"My mother always said I danced around before I spoke", Samar explained (she prefers to use her first name to emphasize her Middle Eastern roots).
Many in the world of dance share that childhood memory. What's most unusual about Samar, now 26, is that she started her Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre in New York City four years ago, when she was just out of college.
The multicultural group, which appears freqeuntly on stages not only in this country but also in the Arab world, will offer a free "Inside-Out" performance next Thursday at 6:30pm in the outdoor Marcia & Seymour Simon Performance Space, high in the hills at Jacob's Pillow.
The company's goal is to forge a connection between the performers and the audience "through compelling, absorbing and transformative dances that express the countless faces of humanity," Samar said.
Samar's background is genuinely cross-cultural - her mother is Palestinian, born in Jerusalem and raised in Amman, Jordan. Her father is American; the couple, now living in Washington D.C, met at her mother's citizenship party and within a year were married in Hong Kong.
Samar was born in Huntsville, Ala., was classically trained in ballet and was planning to attend the University of California at Berkeley to study political science. Having traveled widely, including frequent trips to the Middle East from the time she was 16, she had a sudden change of heart after her brother moved to New York City. At the last minute she was admitted to a joint program run by Fordham University in the Bronx and Alvin Ailey Dance Theare [The Ailey School].
...