About
Dance artist, writer, movement educator, community (dis)organizer, (dis)content creator
Performance
Nadia currently performs with Jonah Bokaer Choreography (with recent tours to Russia and Turkey) and Gotham Dance Theater (where they are also on the creative team). Past projects include Trainor Dance, Tina Croll and Company, the Merce Cunningham Trust, Joe Monteleone, Artists by Any Other Name, eSKay Arts Collective, Avoir Motion, EBDance, and the musical artist Roxiny. Nadia has also performed in visual art installations by Doris Bittar, Qinza Najm, and Reza Farkondeh and at nightlife events LayLit, Yalla! Party, and Nefertitties.
Nadia holds a B.A. in Dance and Psychology from Columbia University, and trained previously at the Cary Ballet Conservatory in North Carolina and the Conservatory for Contemporary Dance Arts in California.
Choreography
As a choreographer, Nadia has set company repertory on Artists by Any Other Name, Avoir Motion, and Gotham Dance Theater and co-directed music videos by Zahed Sultan and Alethea. Their independent works for stage and screen have been presented through Dixon Place, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Little Island NYC, Dancers Unlimited, Queens College Arts Festival, YallaPunk, ScreenDance Miami, New York Arab Festival, and the ModArts Move to Change Festival, among others. Nadia was selected as a 2021 Artist in Residence at Chez Bushwick, and a member of Leimay Foundation’s 2022 Artist Incubator Program.
Nadia’s work is rooted equally in history and fantasy, form and groove, esoterica and common sense. Often collaborative or multi-disciplinary, it highlights the body as a place of intersection between intimacy and power; pleasure and resistance; personal and political - sometimes with a dose of humor. They are not above entertaining audiences nor opposed to making them uncomfortable.
Writing
Nadia has written for The Dance Enthusiast, The Huffington Post, Sukoon Magazine, and Reductress, and is currently a staff writer for thINKingDANCE. Nadia recently created their first theatrical script for Gotham Dance Theater’s 2022 production re:motions, a reflection on recurring world crises from a fictionalized supernatural tragicomedic perspective.
Teaching
Nadia has experience teaching a variety of dance genres—including Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Hip Hop, Ballroom/Social Dance, and Dabke (Levantine line dance)—to students of varied ages, levels, and abilities. They are currently a Teaching Artist with Dancing Classrooms and Dancewave, working with NYC elementary through high school students in school and after-school programs.
Nadia is also a certified Yoga Instructor (RYS YTT200), and teaches with Crunch Gyms and YogaSpark, as well as working with private clients. .
Advocacy
As a member of the Dance/NYC Junior Committee, Nadia has hosted discussions on racial and economic justice in the dance field at the Dance/NYC Symposium and the Arts Administrators of Color Network Convening. Nadia served as cultural consultant for National Queer Theater’s 2020 Criminal Queerness Festival, connecting programming to international communities. They have been involved as a curator and grant writer with Salon al Mahjar, a queer and feminist artist space for Southwest Asian and North African diasporas.