About

Nadra Assaf

Associate Professor of Dance

Dr. Nadra Majeed Assaf is the founder/artistic director of Al-Sarab Dance Foundation which houses Al-Sarab Dance School as well as Al-Sarab Dance Company. She is also a full-time academic at the Lebanese American University and a well-known researcher in dance in the Middle East.

She received her MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College, and a Doctorate of Education from Leicester University. In addition to those degrees she also has a BA in Theater and a BS in Finance. She is best known for her work in dance in the Middle East as she has lived in Lebanon for the past 30+ years.

Most of her dance productions are performed in different countries (Lebanon, Bahrain, USA, Sweden, Finland, and Croatia) include: Public Conflict, Private Scars (2019), Sawtee (2019, 2017), Our Bodies, Our Voices (2017), Am I Who I Am Who Are You Who (2017) Sawtee (2017). This Is How It Happened! (2016), INFLUX (2015), STS: Space-Time-Shape (2012), I Matter: An Audience Interactive Performance (2010), The Faces of EVE (2008-2009), and Majnoun Leila (2007).

In April 2011, she organized and implemented the first annual International Dance Day Festival in Lebanon which continues to exist to date. She is a member of DSA and NDEO and has been a Judge/Instructor on several TV programs concerning performing arts.

Dr. Assaf is an advocate for the arts in Lebanon and the Region. She is also an avid researcher; among her publications: Audience/performer re-action: an investigation into audience/performer reciprocity via a touring site-specific performance in Lebanon (2020) Not Without My Body: The Struggle of Dancers and Choreographers in the Middle East (2015) and “I Matter”: An Interactive Exploration of Audience-Performer Connections (2012).

Books in which she is mentioned: 

  • Women, Dance and Revolution: Performance and Protest in the Southern Mediterranean (2016)
  • Talking Dance: Contemporary Histories from the Southern Mediterranean (2014)

Creative Work

April 2025                   

  • FOCUS IS POWER International Dance Day Festival in Lebanon - Choreographer: Matthew Henley in Collaboration with Nadra Assaf; Performer: Nadra Assaf; Music: Self Esteem

April 2025                   

  • IDDFL 2025 Harmony Within Chaos - Creator, organizer, and producer of the International Dance Day

Festival in Lebanon: main responsibilities have been finding was to shape a platform that celebrates dance in all its forms. My role involves creative directing, programming, and curating of performances, workshops, and discussions bringing together both local and international dance artists/educators. I oversee all aspects of production from venue coordination and technical logistics to marketing, media outreach, and audience engagement.  I have also worked on securing partnerships, sponsorships, and collaborations with embassies, and cultural organizations. The festival has grown into a recognized annual event that highlights dance in all its facets, showcases Lebanon’s dance scene, and provides opportunities for emerging talents to connect with global networks.
https://news.lau.edu.lb/2025/to-dance-toward-tomorrow.php

April 2024                   

  • IDDFL 2024 Pulse of Resilience: Where Do We Start? - Creator, organizer, and producer of the International Dance Day

Festival in Lebanon: main responsibilities have been finding was to shape a platform that celebrates dance in all its forms. My role involves creative directing, programming, and curating of performances, workshops, and discussions bringing together both local and international dance artists/educators. I oversee all aspects of production from venue coordination and technical logistics to marketing, media outreach, and audience engagement.  I have also worked on securing partnerships, sponsorships, and collaborations with embassies, and cultural organizations. The festival has grown into a recognized annual event that highlights dance in all its facets, showcases Lebanon’s dance scene, and provides opportunities for emerging talents to connect with global networks.
https://eventscal.lau.edu.lb/event.php?evt=20240409_the-14th-international-dance-day

December 2023         

  • Mirror Mirror…. how they fall - Lead Artists: Nadra Assaf and Heather Harrington; Choreography: Nadra Assaf and Heather Harrington; Music Composers: Max Richter, James Strange, Henry Purcell, Franz Schubert; Performers: Nadra Assaf and Heather Harrington; Performed at WADE into Activism Festival NY

https://wadedance.org/events/wadeintoactivism
NOTE: Our work is a dance theater piece that weaves in and out of movement and spoken word examining ownership of the body. We explore when this ownership is threatened; by another person (sexual assault), by social constructions (be this weight, have this size breasts, don’t age) and by laws that deny a woman the right to choose whether she has a child or not (the overturning of Roe vs Wade).

June 2023                    

  • A Tribute to Georgette - Choreographer: Nadra Assaf in Collaboration with the Dancers; Dancers: Nadra Assaf, Jimmy Bechara, Sarah Fadel; Music: Unknown

https://news.lau.edu.lb/2023/leaping-into-the-archives-of-lau-celebrating-georgette-gebara.php

April 2023                   

  • The International Dance Day Festival

https://news.lau.edu.lb/2023/international-dance-day-festival-ushers-in-the-way-forward.php

February 2023            

  • WE DISSENT: Film & Fundraiser for Abortion Access - Performer/Collaborator

On June 24, 2022, SCOTUS overturned Roe. 33 dancing girls and women, aged 15 to 80, from California to Lebanon respond.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqEwZpktTcg&t=54s
Campaign: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wedissentfilm?utm_source=supporter_welcome&utm_content=supporter_form 
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR_G8pml53c

December 2022           

  • 16 Days of Performance 

In conjunction with the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence created by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and UN Women, Candice Saylers invited women artists from around the world to join me in a virtual performance. This project was intended to raise more awareness about gender-based violence as well as to allow the artists involved to contribute their performance work to an important effort as global citizens. The 16 Days of Activism ran from November 25 through December 10 2022.
https://www.guidedance.com/16-days-of-performance

November 2022          

  • AL MOUHAQ – A NEW MOON - Performer/Collaborator 

​Witches have inhabited popular imaginaries for centuries, following a systematic witch trial that terrorized Europe with the most gruesome happening between the 16th and 17th centuries. Research has shown that a sizeable amount of knowledge was lost through the witches’ persecutions. More than four centuries separate us from the era of witch trials, however in today’s world women are covertly treated as witches. Nowadays, although regarded more equitably compared to other decades, women are still discriminated against in the work field. In recent years, an effort has been made to shed light on scientific discoveries pushed forward by women that were previously disregarded. This performance revisits these persecuted women to think beyond their demise. It is a study of rituals, transformation, and erasure through movement and an ongoing conversation between several female bodies on womanhood. By going through the witch’s tale, it aims to raise several questions: Can the lost be brought back? Can the forcefully erased be rewritten? Can a new cycle emerge after annihilation?
https://alsarabdancecompany.com/al-mouhaq/
https://www.lebtivity.com/event/al-mouhaq-a-new-moon

November 2022          

  • Public Conflict, Private Scars Explained - Director/Choreographer/Performer; In collaboration with Heather Harrington

The conflict of possessing a female body in a society that deems this body as not warranting the same rights as a male body, has shaped both the movements and identities of Assaf and Harrington. They consider the body - its appearance and movement - as a site of political discussion. They reveal the personal, expanding their message out into the public, sparking a wider conversation of how women are treated, and ultimately crossing geographic and cultural borders.

Selected by WADEintoActivism, https://wadedance.org/wia

November 2022          

  • Unraveling Embodied Terrains Through Virtual Reality - Director/Choreographer/Performer; In collaboration with Heather Harrington

Seminar Two Digital Provocation Abstract:  Unraveling Embodied Terrains Through Virtual Reality at ETHER Leeds
ETHER - Ethics and Aesthetics for Encountering the Other
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtApRv7wEew
In this digital provocation, Assaf and Harrington address their work and highlight the manner in which they communicate and perform together while existing thousands of miles apart.
On January 14th 2016, Assaf (Lebanon) and Harrington (USA) embarked on a collaboration that led to the exchange of 35,500 written words centered around a woman’s body and how it is treated in society. They searched their bodies for memories, excavated them, and brought them to life. They were able to witness and reframe these memories into a new, shared movement language. Their collaborative movement created empathy, bonding, and understanding on a deeper level than their written correspondences. Through their use of research and virtual connection Assaf and Harrington have continued to create work that speaks against the violence that hauntingly remains embodied in female bodies across the globe.

April 2022                   

  • Public Conflict, Private Scars Revisited - Director/Choreographer/Performer; In collaboration with Heather Harrington

Assaf and Harrington’s movements and identities have both been influenced by the struggle of having a female body in a culture that does not view it as deserving of the same rights as a male body. They view the body as a forum for political discourse, both in terms of appearance and movement. By sharing the intimate, they broaden the audience for their message, start a larger dialogue about how women are treated, and ultimately transcend linguistic and cultural barriers.
Performed in IDDFL 2022 (Re) Building, (Re) Forming, (Re) Moving
Held at LAU April 4-9

January 2022               

  • Mesh Men Hon

https://youtu.be/3AIKNogqSSU
Mesh Men Hon is a music video directed by Adam Jamal.
Starring Nadra Assaf and Tracy Younes
Director & Editor: Adam Jammal
Line Producer: Rayan Zrein
Production Manager: Reem Abdallah
Assistant Director: Karl Bou-Rjeily
Cinematographer & Colorist: Karim Elali
Costume Designer: Rahaf Jammal
Making Of: Jad Banjarian
Production Assistant: Tarek Majzoub & Kamel Ali
Equipment Provided by Phoenix Eye Equipped
Written and composed by Waynick. Produced by Waynick and Tunefork studios. Recorded, engineered and mixed by Fadi Tabbal at TuneFork Studios, Lebanon. Mastered by LOPAZZ at Mixmastering, Germany.

December 2021           

  • Lebanese Shores (dance for camera) - Choreographers and Dancers: Nadra Assaf and Maxine Steinman

https://vimeo.com/660996529/b22d8905fb

November 2021          

  • Beit (Dance Film)

Beit (home) is a dance film project by dance artist Rain Ross in collaboration with Al-Sarab Dance Company. This project heralds the plight of Al-Sarab Dance by highlighting moving the old into the new.  Beit: an embodiment of space, shape and time which signifies home as the perpetual light forward.
Director/Conceptualizer Rain Ross
Choreography In collaboration with
Al-Sarab Dance Company
Dancers: Nadra Assaf- Jimmy Bechara- Sarah Fadel- Marita Mattar
Presented in Event Horizon’s Live Presentation
https://www.dancetheater.gr/νέα/item/15518-event-horizons-χορός,-θέατρο,-πολυμέσα,-ηλεκτρονικές-τέχνες,-τεχνητή-νοημοσύνη

August 2021                

  • Loop(H)ole: An Al-Sarab Dance Film - Artistic Director: Nadra Assaf; Co-Assistant Artistic Directors: Sarah Fadel and Jimmy Bechara

When the Lebanese people revolted against their corrupt government in October 2019, no one knew where the world was headed. As 2020 rolled in with the COVID-19 global pandemic, and an explosion that shook the Lebanese to their core, a new type of degradation occurred. loop(H)ole is a filmed depiction of a life no longer resembling anything previously experienced. The people in the space keep moving in attempt to loop back to the life they had previously lived. No matter how many times they try, no matter how many holes they climb out of, nothing is the same. loop(H)ole is an artistic portrayal of a reality in which every being in the world panicked, and every being fought to re-establish their lives of the past. No matter the attempts, their efforts were in vain. Day after day, hour after hour, moving to find a new normal in a place that no longer resembled itself. The struggle to maintain life in a lifeless space creates an inescapable hole, a loop from which the only remaining salvation is unknown.
Project Director: Sarah Fadel
Vision and Conceptualisation: Nadra Assaf and Sarah Fadel
Film Director: Jihad Saade
Choreography by Al Sarab Dance Company
Original Music Score: Alan Abi Semaan
Assistant Filming Director: Mourane Matar
Movers : Sarah Fadel- Myriam Barakat- Carine Abboud- Marita Matar Yara Mansour- Gaelle Chamoun
Official Selection:
Batroun Mediterranean Film Festival (Lebanon)
https://filmfreeway.com/BatrounMediterraneanFilmFestival
Imajitari - International Dance Film Festival (Indonesia)
https://jicon.id/imajitari/
Clapperboard Golden Festival (Brazil)
https://clapperboardgolden.wixsite.com/home

April 2021                   

  • Ground Zero: An Al-Sarab Dance Film - Artistic Director: Nadra Assaf; Co-Assistant Artistic Directors: Sarah Fadel and Jimmy Bechara

This work explores the body as space for lost architecture. What happens when an architectural space - whose main purpose is to offer the body a place to exist - no longer exists. It questions the role of a moving body in a placeless place and uses the body as a medium to give it a shape while embodying the echoes of what once was but no longer is.
Conceptualization, Choreography, and Performance:
Christel Farah, Jimmy Bechara, Sarah Fadel
Cinematographer and DOP:
Nancy Iskandar
Original Music Composition:
Majd Al Alam
Official Selection:
Beirut International Platform Of Dance – BIPOD
https://sites.google.com/a/maqamat.org/bipod/home-news?authuser=0
African Women Mobile International Film Festival – AWMIFF
https://awmiff.wixsite.com/homepage
Mobile Dance Film Festival (USA) https://www.mobiledancefilmfestival.com/
Clapperboard Golden Festival (Brazil)
https://clapperboardgolden.wixsite.com/home
Winner:
Best Smartphone Short
Vesuvius International Film Festival (Italy)
https://vesuviusfilmfestiv.wixsite.com/website

March 2021    

  • Manni L’Waheed (Music Video: Mike Massy) - Actress in primary role/Movement specialist

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH5xnpowsj0
The making of video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPYnbAknRfw

Jan-Dec 2021

September 2020         

  • After the Explosion: Repositioning Dance in Lebanon - Choreography and Direction by Nadra Assaf - Dancers: Al-Sarab Dance Company

Repositioning Performance: Dance in 2020 and Beyond at the Conference: ‘Moving offstage: Bodies, Sites and Situations’ Symposium / Sharing of Practice. University of Chichester, Bishop Otter Campus, College Lane, Chichester.                       

  • ÃH - El Dahdah, A. (Director). (2020). ÃH [Film]. Main Cast: Alex El Dahdah, Nadra Assaf, William Okaily, Teresa Kristi Abboud

Film Festival Screenings and Awards:

April 2020      

  • Materiality of Exile - Choreographer/Story-Teller/Performer

A virtual-movement based project in the series of works by Ana Sánchez-Colberg using prime numbers to generate compositional rules to create new forms of collaborative and participatory contemporary performance. The works defy categorization as they bring together elements of fine and visual art, audio composition, movement, photography and film, live documentation to generate site-specific works that question the relationship between art institutions, the ‘art-object’ and the subjects involved in the creation and reception.

Links:

April 2020                  

  • Eleven Pieces of Me - Dancer/choreographer/dramaturg/scenographer/camera operator

The 2020 Lockdown in Lebanon and the world caused many issues for performers. This piece gives a look into how I dealt with some of it. This piece was also used in Materiality of Exile through the eyes of Ana Sanchez.

Editor: Sarah Fadel - https://vimeo.com/407464315           

  • IDDFL 2020 Lockdown Edition - Director/Creator/Choreographer

Due to COVID-19 and the worldwide pandemic, IDDFL’s 10th anniversary had to be held online. The week-long edition included classes from each of the international guests originally slotted for the festival, as well as a collective online performance which involved an online audition, online teaching of material and finally, the performance. https://www.facebook.com/internationalDancedayfestivallebanon/                                                                    

October 2019             

  • Sawtee ~ reprise (previously presented in March 2017) - Choreographer/Principal Dancer and Performer/Trainer

Sawtee is a multifaceted, multi-genre performance creation which highlights the female identity and is primarily guided by the songs of the artist Yolla Khalife and the choreography of Nadra Assaf and Souraya Baghdadi, artistically adapted to the stage and directed by Chadi Zein. The work explores different areas of gender, particular the female ones through movement, music, words, scenography, sound and lighting.

Sawtee is a tribute to females who manage to continue moving forward despite the pain and suffering inflicted on them psychologically, sociologically, historically by males. Sawtee is an artistic representation of the female mystic, poetic essence and presence. Sawtee takes the audience to the hyper reality of the core of what it means to be a female from pleasure and ecstasy to sorrow and pain.

Performed for four days at Monnot Theater Achrafieh, Beirut-Lebanon on October 10-13, 2019. 

August 2019              

  • Private Scars Revealed - Choreographer/Performer/Director - The Opening ceremony of Mishkal Performance Festival, in collaboration with Al-Sarab Dance Company and Al-Madina Theater

July 2019                   

  • Public Conflict, Private Scars - Director/Choreographer/Performer, in collaboration with Heather Harrington

The conflict of possessing a female body in a society that deems this body as not warranting the same rights as a male body, has shaped both the movements and identities of Assaf and Harrington. They consider the body - its appearance and movement - as a site of political discussion. They reveal the personal, expanding their message out into the public, sparking a wider conversation of how women are treated, and ultimately crossing geographic and cultural borders.

Performed in Geneva NY at the 7th annual Somatic Dance Conference. https://ny6mediashare.ensemblevideo.com/hapi/v1/contents/permalinks/Kb29Pow5/view

June 2019                   

  • Seven to the Seventh:  A Global Dance in a Shared Virtual Stage - Director/Performer

Seven to the Seventh is the brainchild of Athens resident choreographer Ana Sánchez-Colberg in partnership with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre.  The unprecedented event connected synchronically artists and their artistic communities, in multiple urban sites, across seven-time zones on the week of 24th-30th June 2019 as part of the summer’s Nostos Festival. https://www.snfestival.org/2019/

As for the Lebanon contribution:

Jimmy Bechara, in collaboration with Nadra Assaf and Al-Sarab Dance Company-Byblos, Lebanon journeyed through a structured movement improvisation which touches on the current concerns of spatial ownership and migration. Lebanon, currently being home to 1.8 million Syrian refugees, faces daily issues with space, environment and infrastructure. The participating movers highlighted awareness of these  issues through a seven-point historical based movement journey which started at the oldest existing Mosaic in the 7000 BC Old Souk (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and ended at one of the oldest religious spaces in the town and the UNESCO Cultural Square. The aim throughout the experience was to raise awareness of the historical educational significance of the land (being the spot from where the alphabet was launched to the world) as well as its current role of embodying both Lebanese and Syrians.

Links:

April 2019                  

  • IDDFL GALA - Director/Organizer/Performer                                

October 2018             

  • And Still She Persisted… - Choreographer/Dancer/Collaborator. In collaboration with Bill Evans and Bill Evans Dance and presented as a part of NDEO 2018 in San Diego USA. A new segment of Passing on the Legacy: Creation and performance of a multigenerational Dance Work.                                   

September 2018         

  • Reverberations: What will be left after we are gone? - Choreographer-Director-Performer - In collaboration with Al-Sarab Dance Company, Mishkal Performance Festival and Al-Madina Theater.

We live in a world where one small ripple can have a cascading effect. As dancers, movers, physical communicators, Al-Sarab Dance Company spent time investigating movement connection and inertia the result of this investigation led to a 20-minute performance piece.

Music collaborator: LAU Assistant Professor of Music Amr Selim

July 2018                   

  • Our Bodies, Our Voices: Virtual Meets Real - Choreographer-Director-Performer; in Collaboration with Heather Harrington

Assaf and Harrington, continents apart, talked through their differences and realized an underlying structure- the equality of their bodies- and found an ally in one another by moving together; a duet. They searched their bodies for past memories, excavated them, and brought them to life. They were able to witness and reframe those memories into a new, shared movement language. Their physical contact created empathy, bonding, and understanding on a deeper level than their written correspondences. They created in their dance a mirror of recognition; an intersection of nationalities, cultures, personal stories, bodies, and memories. Their work aims to show connections, not categories that define and divide individuals, and the ability to empathize with one another beyond borders; moving together, body to body in a shared space. https://vimeo.com/279192320/e8e8e0b857

Performed in Geneva NY at the 6th annual SOMATIC DANCE CONFERENCE Making Your Corner of the World a Better Place: Somatics, Science, Pedagogy and Performance.

NB: The performance won accolades by being selected to be performed at the GALA performance at the end of the event. https://vimeo.com/287673504/058e1bf161

  • Unraveling Embodied Terrains (UET) - Choreographer-Director-Performer - In Collaboration with Heather Harrington

UET extends from Assaf and Harrington’s previous works (NOFOD- NEXT) and highlights the conflict a female body faces in society and how that body protests the right to exist. Through their use of research, coupled with choreographed movement (dance) and rhythmic accompaniment (their voices and music) Assaf and Harrington take an active stand against the violence that hauntingly remains embodied in females internationally. Their presentation exhibits -through connections, resolutions, and the ability to empathize with one another beyond borders- an optimum reconciliation. It accentuates moving together in resistance against any conflict that strives to undermine the female body.

Performed in Valletta, Malta at The Dance Studies Association’s Conference, Contra: Dance and Conflict.

April and May 2018  

  • Just Like the Dust…. - Choreographer/Trainer/Director

The piece revolves around the concept of gender equality and how this is handled via Human Rights forums across the world. Performed in LAU’s Gulbenkian Theater on the Beirut campus as part of IDDFL 2018 and Festival NEXT 2018.

April 2018                  

  • From Peace to Hope With a Few In Betweens - Co-Choreographer-Director-Designer-Trainer-Organizer-Sciptwriter, in collaboration with Rain Ross

A Site Specific Audience Interactive Piece performed through the Byblos Souk. Seven stops along an 50 minute performance path. The tableaus depict several Human Rights issues. http://www.lau.edu.lb/news-events/news/archive/dance_for_hope_and_change/

SDGs Research Mapping

Dr. Nadra Assaf conducts research relevant to the following SDGs:

Publications/Conference Papers

Conference Papers

  • Assaf, N. et al. (2022) Transforming, Updating, and Advancing Dance Research Through Inclusion and Diversity. National Dance Education Organization Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA https://www.ndeo.org/Learn/Conferences/Past-NDEO-National-Conferences/Conference-2022
  • Assaf, N and H. Harrington. (2021) Unraveling Embodied Terrains Through Virtual Reality. Presented in ETHER – Ethics and Aesthetics for Encountering the Other Seminar 2: The Ethical Drama of Encountering the Other. https://ether.leeds.ac.uk/events/seminar-2-the-ethical-drama-of-encountering-the-other-21st-september-2021-date-tbc-university-of-stirling/  https://ether.leeds.ac.uk/profiles/nadra-assaf/
  • Assaf, N. (2020) Dance Education in Lebanon. BiPOD 2020 online platform. https://www.citerne.live/people/nadra-assaf; https://www.citerne.live/events/dance-education-in-lebanon-with-nadra-assaf
  • Assaf, N. (2020). Repositioning Performance: Dance in 2020 and Beyond at the Conference: ‘Moving offstage: Bodies, Sites and Situations’ Symposium / Sharing of Practice. University of Chichester, Bishop Otter Campus, College Lane, Chichester.
  • Assaf, N. and H. Harrington. (2017). Embodying Feminism in the 21st Century: Perspectives from the East and the West at the 13th International NOFOD Conference titled DANCE AND DEMOCROCY hosted by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. June 14-17, 2017.
  • Assaf, N. (2016).  Through the Lens Choreographing and Dancing: a Creative Process in a Shared Reality at Cognitive Futures in the Humanities hosted by University of Helsinki, June 13-15, Helsinki Finland.
  • Assaf, N. and Ross, R. (2015). Developing Community through Dance in Lebanon at Lines Between: Culture and Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean conference hosted by Stockton University and European University of Cyprus. June 2015, Nicosia Cyprus.
  • Assaf, N. and Tayara, R. (2015). The Passion That Moves Me: An Investigation into the Body-Mind Connection of Middle Eastern Dancers. at the Dance and Somatic Practices Conference. July 2015 Coventry University, UK.

Publications:

  • Assaf, N. (2025). Fighting the good fight: A journey of reflection and transformation. In G. Harman (Ed.), Practitioner perspectives on dance research (pp. 177-191). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003436744
  • Assaf, N., & Harrington, H. (2025). Unraveling embodied terrains: Scrutinizing choreographic process. In The Intellect Handbook of Dance Education Research (pp. 251–261). Intellect. https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835951347_22
  • Assaf, N., & Ross, R. (2025). Building a dance community in Lebanon: An introspection on the journey to the International Dance Day Festival in Lebanon (IDDFL). In The Intellect Handbook of Dance Education Research (pp. 302–313). Intellect. https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835951347_26
  • Assaf, N & M. Henley (2024): Becoming Al-Sarab: A Dance Education Narrative, Dance Chronicle, VOL 47 Issue 3 pp. 325-353. DOI:10.1080/01472526.2024.235987
  • Assaf. N. (2024) Encountering through Storytelling in Kubanyiova, M., & Shetty, P.(eds). Listening without Borders: Creating Spaces for Encountering Difference. Multilingual Matters: Channel View Publications.
  • Assaf, N. and H. Harrington (2022), ‘(Re)positioning, (re)ordering, (re)connecting: A choreographic process of mind and body convergence’, Choreographic Practices, 13:1, pp. 25–52, https://doi.org/10.1386/chor_00040_1
  • Assaf, N and H. Harrington. (2022) Unraveling Embodied Terrains Through Virtual Reality. The Dancer-Citizen Issue 14. Section 4. http://dancercitizen.org/issue-14/nadra-assaf-and-heather-harringon/
  • Assaf, N. et.al. (2020). Reinventing IDDFL: Implementing a Dance Festival in Lebanon during the COVID-19 Lockdown. The Dancer-Citizen: http://dancercitizen.org/Vol 10. Section 8.  http://dancercitizen.org/issue-10/nadra-assaf/
  • Assaf, N. and Selim, A. (Spring 2020). Audience/Performer Re-Action: An Investigation into Audience/Performer Reciprocity via a Touring Site-Specific Performance in Lebanon.  Research in Dance Education. Taylor & Francis.  DOI: 10.1080/14647893.2020.1746255 https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/A5SD2NK6IBPF9PHTXSEM/full?target=10.1080/14647893.2020.1746255
  • Assaf, N. (2015). Not Without My Body: The Struggle of Dancers and Choreographers in the Middle East in Somatic Perspectives on Living in This World, edited by Natalie Garret Brown, Sarah Whatley and Kristy Alexander. Triarchy Press. https://www.triarchypress.net/nadra-assaf.html
  • Assaf, N. (2013) Dancing without My Body: Cultural Integration in the Middle East  in Popular Culture in the Middle East and North Africa: A Postcolonial Outlook, edited by Mounira Soliman and Walid El Hamamsy. Routledge Publications.
  • Assaf, N. (2013). “I Matter”: An Interactive Exploration of Audience-Performer Connections. Research in Dance Education. Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14647893.2012.712103
  • Assaf, N. (2011). “I Matter” A Closer Look at Performer-Audience Connections: Audience Perspective. A Dance Research Project in collaboration The ATTC, and several Arab and European partner organizations managing the Dance Refl-action project researching current dance pedagogies in the Arab Mediterranean region, financially supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation and the Swedish Theatre and Drama Institute.
  • Assaf, N. (2009). The Meanings of a Modern Dance: An Investigation into the Communicative Properties of a Non-Verbal Medium. VDM-Verlag.

Blogs

Reviewer

Academic Degrees

  • PhD in Education, Leicester University
  • MFA in Dance (with honors), Sarah Lawrence College
  • BS in Finance, Louisiana State University, USA
  • BA in Theater from Centenary College, Louisiana