Syrian dancer reflects on escaping ISIS and finding freedom through ballet

Geoff Bennett:

You're about to meet a ballet dancer of unusual grace and grit.

Ahmad Joudeh was born stateless in a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, Syria. He's traveled far since on the power of his dreams.

Amna Nawaz:

We recently met him at his new home in San Diego after surviving a traumatic childhood, much of Syria's civil war, and constant threats of execution by ISIS.

Here he is to tell his own story.

Ahmad Joudeh, Syrian-Palestinian Ballet Dancer:

Living my life as a stateless refugee taught me that the concept of home is the way you feel. So, for me, my body is my home. Wherever I go, wherever I dance, it is home. And I learned how to belong.

My name is Ahmad Joudeh. I am a dancer. I was born in Syria in a refugee camp for stateless refugees in Damascus, Syria. Stateless means you don't have a nationality and you don't have an I.D. or rights.

Growing up in a camp was a bit challenging. I wanted to become a dancer after I saw dance for the first time. The girls school were performing ballet. I was 8 years old. I brought dance home, but secretly first.

I was, like, going to my room, locking the door, and just, like, dance by myself, until my mother found out. She told me this was ballet, and she gave me my first stretching exercises. Since then, I just love ballet.

But my father had a different idea. He used to beat me up and he used to tell me: "You have one choice, study or dance." And my response to him was: "It's dance or die."

So he could not accept that. And when we left the house, and me and my mom and my brother and sister, I felt always guilty, and I felt like I broke the family. And it was just dark, and everything was falling apart around me.

I was 17, so I tried to take my own life, and that was very hard. But being in that moment, it taught me a lot. It taught me how I could be my own person. Like, why do I have to die if I don't? Why don't I just live my own life the way I want?

I used to teach children dance in Syria and in Europe. I love teaching dance, but especially in Syria in refugee camps, where these children they don't have parental care. They are disprivileged children. When I was a refugee little kid, I was dreaming of someone to come teach me something.

I just wanted to be this person that I dreamed of having when I was a child. In Syria, when I used to give children dance classes, especially in the SOS Children's Villages, I received these threats a lot, but still I went there. When the war has started in Syria, and all these extremists came to the country, I was still dancing and I was the principal in the company, and my posters all over the city, in theaters and on TV.

These extremists knew about me and they wanted my head. So they used to send me threats to my phone, post my pictures on Facebook. But what bothered me most was when, they used to call from anonymous numbers and just say that they want to cut my head.

I decided to take a tattoo on my neck. It says "Dance or die," because I wanted to carry my life on my neck. I live the way I want, or I don't want this life. Dance took me to Amsterdam, and I worked with the Dutch National Ballet, who brought me from Syria and they saved my life literally 10 years ago.

But the country I was born in, they still don't like me. They still don't like that I am a free person who is Pride ambassador for Amsterdam, Pride, who is a dancer who's performing almost everywhere.

So dance brought me to Amsterdam, but love brought me to San Diego. I came here following my heart. And, of course, wherever I go, I look for my artistic home. I found this company, Golden State Ballet, and since then, I learned that dreams can still be true.

So, this year, I also performed in an opera, actually world premiere opera called "Gilgamesh." Gilgamesh is a leader, and he decided to be a brutal leader for his people. The gods want to change him. So they created Enkidu, who's a companion for him.

So Gilgamesh found love, and love changed him. His love for his friend made him become a better leader. I think that's a message for our leaders in the world. Maybe that's the answer. I don't think anyone in the world who feels loved would hurt anybody else.

So try to love yourself, so you can love others, and try to find your own freedom within so you can accept other people's freedom.