Live Stream: Gibney Presents: Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre

The live stream will be available to view for 72 hours.

Last Ward

Last Ward follows one man’s journey towards death in a hospital room. Surrounded by the sterile mechanisms of modern medicine, the patient reflects on his life, relationships and connection to place, as the ritual of doctor visits and family calls transform into an increasingly bizarre landscape of tragedy and humor. Written/directed by Amir Nizar Zuabi with choreography/music by Samar Haddad King, Last Ward blends dance and theater (in Arabic with English subtitles) in a highly-visual evening-length performance.

Purchase tickets to the in person performance here.
Register for the YSDT PLAY workshop at Gibney here.

About Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre

Founded by Samar Haddad King in New York City in 2005, Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (YSDT)’s mission is to increase access to – and promote understanding through – live performance and education initiatives. To date, the company has taught and performed in ten countries across four continents and fostered the careers of over fifty emerging artists in the US and Arab World through multimedia projects that unite diverse communities in the creative process. New York City performances include: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, Downtown Dance Festival, Joyce SoHo, Harlem Stage, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Queens Museum, Teatro La TEA and Whitewave Dance Festival. Following eight years of NYC programming, YSDT established a secondary base in Palestine in 2012. The company has since developed groundbreaking methods of working across cultural and geographic borders which have been covered in Dance Magazine, Huffington Post, and Hyperallergic, among others.

Gibney Presents is Gibney’s premier presentation series, offering a rich blend of dance and performance in fully-produced, evening-length commissions.

The development of Last Ward was supported through creative residencies at: Dance Initiative, Launchpad (Carbondale, CO), Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC,) Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris), Al-Hakawati, Palestinian National Theatre (Jerusalem), Middlebury College (VT) and Jacob’s Pillow (MA).

Funding Credits include: Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Covillo/Lynch Family Foundation, MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation; and FUSED (French U.S. Exchange in Dance), a program developed by FACE Foundation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States with the support from the Florence Gould Foundation, Institut français-Paris, the French Ministry of Culture and private donors. Additional support for women artists has been provided by Fondation CHANEL.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre is a 2021 NDP Finalist Grant Award recipient. Support was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to address continued sustainability needs during COVID-19 and in support of Last Ward.

Image Description: A group of 6 performers in white lab coats hold aloft IV bags in one arm with the other arm extended behind.

Photo courtesy of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre.