The Amina Khayyam Dance Company puts out cutting edge dance shows from a South Asian feminist perspective. Bangladeshi-born British dancer, choreographer and dance teacher Amina Khayyam uses traditional South Asian dance Kathak to bring her narratives to life.
Touring both nationally and internationally, the dance company brings intricate choreography fuelled by passion and emotion to its audiences. Empowering the marginalized female voice, Kathak blends with theater, live art and technology for a hypnotic multimedia experience.
Amina Khayyam draws on Kathak roots
Khayyam’s dancing draws its roots firmly in Kathak, one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. Kathak derives from the Sanskrit word meaning ‘story’, and kathakars,‘storytellers’, refer to the traditional traveling bards of Ancient India. Kathak dancers weave together narratives with their hand movements, footwork and facial expressions.
In 2001, Khayyam made her professional dancing debut at the esteemed Purcell Room in London’s Southbank Centre. She then impressed as the principle performer in South Bank’s outdoor spectacle Escapade in 2003. Khayyam has also appeared in a Manipuri (another form of traditional Indian dance) production of Macbeth.
Setting up the Amina Khayyam Dance Company in 2007, she’s since performed with many world-renowned choreographers. For example: in 2014, she adapted Frederico Garcia Lorca’s play Yerma. Originally set in rural 19th Century Spain, Khayyam relocated the story to inner-city Britain. Using Kathak set to live music, the play follows the tragic story and shame of a childless marriage. In the end, the bride’s yearning for a child leads her to commit a horrific crime.
While the play was written in 1934, it still holds relevance today for women across many different cultures: “they are under tremendous pressure to ‘do the right thing’ and if they seemingly don’t conform to what society has decided are the rules, they will find themselves marginalized, pushed out and ultimately without family or support,” Khayyam says.
Amina Khayyam: Bangladesh to Surrey
Khayyam was born in Sylhet, Bangladesh and grew up in Oxted, Surrey in England. While there, she experienced racism as one of the very few people of color in her village. Interested in dance as a child, she only began to explore it at 16. She started traveling to nearby multicultural Croydon for Kathak classes.
“I always wanted to do classical dance – and Kathak was on my doorstep, and it was an instant love affair and going to Croydon was my way out into the community – it was nice to see Asian and black people,” she says.
Training under Kathak specialist Sushmita Gosh, she enrolled at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Educational Trust for three years. Founded in 1938 with the support of Mahatma Gandhi, honorary Board members have included the Dalai Lama, Prince Charles and Mother Teresa.
The Amina Khayyam Dance Company
Khayyam’s dance company have put on a number of hit shows over the years. For example, A Thousand Faces, made in partnership with the Acid Survivors Trust International, explores the objectification of women in acid attacks. To this end, the show subverts imagery of Bollywood beauty and Hollywood glamor. Referred to by the BBC as a “powerful hard-hitting emotional production that had integrity, honesty and reality at its core,” you can watch the trailer here:
Another show One explores and questions the idea of the migrant and refugee, so lambasted by the the media and politicians. By invoking ideas from traditional Indian philosophy, she explores themes of cyclic time using costume, movement, space and music.
During the Covid Lockdown, Khayyam developed a project with local women in Luton, Woking, Slough, Brighton, Birmingham, Leeds and London. It explored their stories and experiences of the lockdown through the traditional south Asian embroidery form – Kantha. You can watch the whole installation here:
Follow Amina Khayyam on Twitter for all her news and information on her latest show Kathak Monologues.
