Ahmad Joudeh

Ahmad Joudeh (born 4 April 1990) is a Dutch ballet dancer and choreographer. He was born and raised as a stateless refugee in Syria. He moved to the Netherlands with help of the Dutch National Ballet Company in 2016. He is currently internationally active as an artist. In 2021, he obtained Dutch citizenship.

Early life Born in 1990, Joudeh grew up in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. His mother is Syrian and his father is Palestinian. Although his father did not approve of his interest in dance, Joudeh persisted, studying dance in Damascus.

From 2007 until 2016, he lived in Damascus, studying dance, and teaching ballet to support himself, and to orphaned and disabled children free of charge. His mother still lives in Syria. His father is an asylum seeker in Germany, where the two reconciled after an estrangement of eleven years.

Dance In 2014 he was a contestant in the Arab version of So You Think You Can Dance. The ancient Roman theater in Palmrya was subsequently destroyed by ISIL.

In 2018, a second film about Joudeh, Dance for Peace, which includes his meeting and reconciliation with his father at his refugee camp in Berlin, was broadcast on Dutch television on the Nieuwsuur program. It depicts his life once he has moved to the Netherlands and has begun dancing with the Dutch National Ballet Company. Dance or Die has been awarded with an Emmy in the category Arts Programming at the International Emmy Awards in New York.

Life in the Netherlands After the documentaries aired, Joudeh received invitations to dance from a number of countries, including the U.S., Switzerland and Belgium. He decided to go to the Netherlands at the invitation of Ted Brandsen, artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet Company.