Ahmad Joudeh
Dutch National Ballet sets up fund to support talented dancers from Syria and other conflict zones
In the summer of 2016, journalist Roozbeh Kaboly, from the Dutch news programme Nieuwsuur, made a documentary about Ahmad called Dance or Die. This documentary has changed Ahmad’s life radically.
On seeing the documentary, Dutch National Ballet’s director Ted Brandsen decided to do something to help bring the Syrian dancer to the Netherlands. By setting up the fund Dance for Peace and through donations from private individuals, Ahmad Joudeh has successfully made the journey to the Netherlands.
Ahmad has now started his four-year training as a student of the National Ballet Academy, in Amsterdam, in order to develop his talents as a dancer and choreographer. In the December production of Coppelia, Ahmad will be making his debut on a Dutch stage in a supporting role. A second documentary that Nieuwsuur made about him shows his journey from Syria to the Netherlands and his experiences in his first weeks in the Netherlands. This documentary, Dance for Peace, was shown recently on Dutch television. Director Ted Brandsen: "Ahmad persevered with his passion for dancing under the most difficult circumstances. I found it very moving. He looked like every other dancer with the same passion, only he was living through the war in Damascus”. Dutch National Ballet did not have the means to bring Ahmad to the Netherlands. “We’re not subsidised for that. However, we do have the contacts and we know how to bring dancers over from abroad. I thought that if I had been moved by the programme then so would many other viewers. There would be people who wanted to help. So we set up the fund”.
Until very recently, the Syrian dancer Ahmad Joudeh was still giving dance classes to children in Damascus, among the rubble and the atrocities of war.
Ahmad Joudeh – photographer: Michel Schnater