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I first saw Ahmad Joudeh dancing in Syria in the moving documentary Dance or Die. This dancer was invited to many opera ballets, before he was threatened by his father from the day he began to dance until ISIS made him leave the country. He came to the Nationale Opera & Ballet as a student last October, and I just had to hear his story for myself.
“I chose the Netherlands because of YouTube. It’s special, they have a beauty on stage which I wanted to feel as well.” He should have gone to Syrian military service last month: “I’d rather leave to stay alive and go back sometime to build the Syrian Nationale Ballet. I think about that and my family every morning when I go to ballet class.”
Look at the doves, they don’t even fly; they know people won’t hurt them. Everything’s safe here!
His country means everything to him. Bombings used to be his daily life until he came here. “I enjoy every single detail. In Syria, people are just surviving, not living. This is really different from seeing destruction. Look at the doves, they don’t even fly; they know people won’t hurt them. Everything’s safe here,” he laughed.
ISIS threatened to break his legs because he’s a dancer. “They don’t have any culture, they just come out from nowhere to break our history. They believe art goes against the mind, which is not Islamic at all. Centuries ago, they’d have done this because they were stupid people. I’m fighting for my country in culture.” He involves through his choreographies, mainly about women rights. ”I saw my mother struggling with society. A woman is beautiful, you don’t have to cover her. At the end of the dance, the woman threw her hijab on the floor and danced on it. The Syrian minister of culture shook my hand!”
When I’m dancing, I feel like a king. Why do you want to make me slave for some Arab tradition?
“The war could stop by putting religious things aside. We’d live together before the war and we’d never ask about your religion.” His friends didn’t even know he’s Palestinian. “They’ll never win. I’m waiting until the war ends and I’ll go back.” He shouts it out: “I wasn’t afraid. I just made a tattoo on my neck, which is sinful. And it’s dance or die, right to the place where they cut your head.”
To him, everything has always been so obvious; it’s all about dance. “When I was really young I walked beside my mom in the streets with a tempo. Dance chose me. I didn’t know it was called dance, I was just moving with the noise. I wanted to be a choreographer when my body needed to stop dancing, to keep dance in my life. I found myself as a dancer, why are you forbidding me from being this? When I’m dancing, I feel like a king. Why do you want to make me a slave for some Arab tradition?”
Not only had he given his life for dance, but also to maintain that. “We have Opera House or Ballet School, but they’re managed by people who don’t have this experience. They’ll involve politics in art, which is breaking it. Art’s something for beauty and humanity.” Meanwhile, he gave a message of hope for everyone: “My art is to help those people who are trying to be something in life. We all have something to tell, to be whatever, you just need to find yourself and go for it. That’s why I didn’t care, my father didn’t want to see me because I’m a dancer, but he’s an artist. We had this fight about who’d stay on his position. I was 17 when I left the house”
I wanted to teach the children, to help them building this strong personality after all they saw during the war.
Why dancing? “It’s something special. It taught me how to be strong, that’s why I wanted to teach the children, to help them build this strong personality after all they saw during the war. I don’t like to be just a ballet dancer; I dance to express my feelings. I never feel nervous before a show, because I love what I do, I waited for this.” Strong and big-headed enough to dance in Syria among ruins: “It was like building it again. I was holding all the energy around me to build it and let them know that this theater isn’t for killing people, it is for art.” No doubt Ahmad will keep on dancing and impress during Sleeping Beauty at the end of the year.
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