Reema Samaha

Ever since Reema Samaha was two years old, she was dancing.

“She got her first ballet outfit when she was two,” said older sister Randa Samaha, junior at the University of Virginia. “Even whenever she fell, she would make it graceful.”

Reema took dance lessons since she was four at the Russell school through high school and was involved in Hill and Veil’s bellydance club and the Contemporary Dance Ensemble at Virginia Tech.

“It was the most satisfying feeling to know that the simple form of dance has the power to unite so many individuals, whatever their background,” Reema wrote in her
essay for an application to the University of Virginia last year.

The weekend before Monday’s campus tragedy, Reema, freshman university studies major, had performed in a show for the Contemporary

Dance Ensemble and organized a group to perform a traditional Lebanese line dance called debke. She brought in participants to dance during this performance from other international groups. She was in love with her culture, Randa Samaha said.

Another one of Reema’s best qualities was her humor, said friend Chelsea Stenger, senior at Westfield High School.

“She was voted class clown in eight grade and something similar to that her senior year in the high school superlatives,” Randa Samaha said.

Reema also loved theatre, which she was very involved with in high school.

Haroon Haider, friend and senior at Westfield High School remembers her during theatre work in high school, where she mixed her acting talent with dancing.

“We were the first two on the stage for a bottle dancing sequence in Fiddler on the Roof,” Haider said. “We’d dance with each other and we’d have the goofiest expressions to make each other laugh and mess us up, but we knew we had to appear professional because we were in front of a live audience. On the inside we were cracking up, but on the outside we had to look like legitimate dancers.”
Reema was nominated for a Cappie Award for best dance ensemble for that play.

She often mixed her dance talent with theatre talent.

“Exactly a year ago we performed Oklahoma for theatre,” said Haider. “She was a dance captain for the play and helped us learn our choreography. No matter who needed help, she was willing to give them her full attention. Even individually, she was there when you needed help.”

Reema landed the lead role in the play Arsenic and Old Lace at Westfield High School.

“My favorite play of hers was ‘Arsenic and Old Lace,’” said friend Kristen Flanagan, junior at James Madison University. “That was the absolute perfect role for her,” Flanagan said. “She played (an old lady) named Aunt Martha. She impersonated people a lot and had different voices for people. It was funny and cute to see her as a little old lady.”

Reema decided to try out for ‘Arsenic’ on a whim and literally learned her lines the night before auditions and ended up getting the lead.

Reema enjoyed using her talents to make funny home videos.

“The biggest of the videos was one we made called ‘Double Date Dinner Disaster,’ where Reema played the man, she just always played a really good male,” Randa Samaha said.

“We also did a spoof on Pimp My Ride and she dressed as a Spanish Man,” Randa Samaha said.

The last video was one called “Johnny Poo-Poo Pants,” which is posted on YouTube.

Some of Randa Samaha’s best memories of her sister come from their time together in Lebanon, where
they often traveled during the summer with their family.

“There was this one night (while we were in Lebanon) where we had this huge cousin wedgie war,” Randa Samaha said. “It lasted for an hour.”

Getting ready for bed was another great memory Randa Samaha had, where the both of them would dance and sing.

“She was always the lead singer and I was the backup singer,” she said. “When I tried to take over the lead, she would give me a look.”

Reema was a dedicated student her whole life and was determined about all of her endeavors.

“She was really serious about learning French and we had gone to France over spring break and if I ever spoke English, she would get made at me,” Randa Samaha said. “When she put her mind to something she went through with it. She was very focused.”

Reema had some difficulty adjusting to college at Tech.

“She had her heart set on being (at U.Va.) with me,” said Randa Samaha. She found her.

Reema’s plans at Tech included majoring in Urban Planning and a minor in International Relations and French.

“She was about as close to perfect as you could get,” Stenger said.