Alia Al Saadi

Alia Al Saadi is a Palestinian-Syrian dancer, performer, and choreographer based in Switzerland. Her artistic practice embodies the intersections of displacement, collective memory, and resistance. She relies fundamentally on dance and movement as an authentic medium for self-expression, transforming the body into a living archive that documents human experience and redefines identity within exile.

Born and raised in the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus, Syria, Alia legally belongs to the “stateless” category—a reality that has deeply shaped her life and artistic journey, lending a profound political and human dimension to her physical language. In 2024, she graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus (Dance Department), where she received comprehensive academic training. Her studies spanned classical ballet, contemporary dance, jazz, modern dance, choreography, and traditional folk dance, alongside intensive theoretical and technical coursework in scenography, lighting, sound, art history, and the history of dance.

Throughout her academic and professional career, Alia has performed on numerous stages, including the Opera House for Culture and Arts in Damascus, with her regional performances expanding to stages across Iraq and Qatar. Alongside her work as a performing artist, her creative experience extends to collaborations within the independent and sustainable fashion sector, having worked as a model with Burdeya Official, a contemporary Arabic fashion brand rooted in independent local design and production.

In 2025, Alia was awarded the prestigious Minority Artist Award by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, in recognition of her outstanding artistic output, dedicated work, and her unique ability to translate her lived reality and personal experience into an infinitely expressive and impactful movement.

Her artistic vision as a choreographer is vividly manifested in three prominent conceptual works she designed and performed: “Skin” (presented in Geneva, exploring the boundaries of the body, memory, and the skin as the primary frontier of identity), “They Were There”, and “Disorder”. Through these works, Alia raises vital questions surrounding continuous loss, the challenges of exile, and utilizes dance as a means to reclaim space, history, and the lost homeland.