Hala is a performing artist, poet, and freelance writer for Vogue Arabia and Dance Magazine. She performs primarily with Jonah Bokaer Choreography (JBC), through which she appeared in the Club Monaco “What Moves You” campaign and also danced with the Company in the short film “Vesica Piscis", created by fashion designers threeASFOUR for their 2021 collections. She has toured internationally with JBC, recently to Istanbul, Turkey to perform in “Unstable Structures” at Arter Museum as part of the inaugural ImpoDance Festival. Last year the Company performed “Reverse Perspective” in Russia at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and Jaani Kirik in St. Petersburg as part of Reformers Festival. With JBC she has also participated in residences at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, during which the Company developed two new works: Indecent Spaces, a collaborative performance work exploring connections between identity, gender, race, and space, in partnership with architect Charles Renfro / DS+R, and set to rare music by Isang Yun performed by world-renowned violinists Jennifer and Angela Chun; and Jehan Sadat: In Three Dimensions, a durational work in collaboration with She Who Tells A Story at the Ackland Art Museum, featuring costumes designed by Austin Scarlett.
This Fall, Hala will travel to Germany to dance in Sameena Mitta / MeenMoves ‘Struwwelpeter Project’ film. As a solo performer, she continues to develop a series of works blending spoken word and poetry that she began in Spring 2021 during her Artists-in-Residence at Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation’s (JBAF) Chez Bushwick.
Reflecting on 9/11, 20 years later in 2021, Hala joined the cast of "Behind Blue Sky,” a film devised through NYU Steinhardt’s Drama Therapy program, that weaves personal and fictionalized narratives about 9/11 and its current social parallels.
As a teaching artist for Ping Chong + Company (PCC) Secret Histories: Arts in Education program, she has worked with students at a New York City Public School to develop identity-driven narratives presented in a digital theatrical performance due to Covid-19. With PCC and director Jesca Prudencio, she collaborated in the creation of the docu-dance theater work “Calling: a dance with faith,” presented by La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, which unpacks her experiences as a Muslim dancer. She recently joined playwright Zizi Azah and director Nana Dakin for the workshop production “I Know I Would,” featuring women of Muslim faith or family heritage, presented by Strong & Wrong Theater/Eric Wu and Yuchen Xia.
Hala co-choreographed “NOHING a docu-dance on sexual assault” with Jesca Prudencio / People of Interest through Performance Project at University Settlement. She has also choreographed works for the Voices Transposed: Refugee Crisis Benefit Concert and LaGuardia Performing Arts Center's Beyond Sacred: Unthinking Muslim Identity program.
She has enjoyed performing in productions of From The Horse’s Mouth - honoring writer Deborah Jowitt and Egyptian ballet dancer Magda Saleh. Hala previously danced with Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company and El Teatro de Danza Contemporanea, and has performed on tour in Jordan and Central America.
Hala began dancing in Pennsylvania at Campbelltown School of Dance with Lynne Leis, and later studied flamenco dance with José Greco and trained at the Washington School of Ballet in Washington, DC.
She studied acting with John Howard Swain and at the T. Schreiber Studio in NY.
Hala holds a BA in Journalism and Middle Eastern studies from NYU, and a MFA in Dance from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.