Nahid Siddiqui

🪔 About

Nahid Siddiqui, born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in 1956, is a highly acclaimed Pakistani dancer and exponent of Kathak, renowned for her innovative contributions to the classical dance form. She began her Kathak training in 1971 under Maharaj Ghulam Hussain Kathak in Pakistan and later studied with Pandit Birju Maharaj in India, becoming the only Pakistani to extensively explore the physical and theoretical nuances of this ancient dance form. Siddiqui's distinctive style is recognized for incorporating Islamic and Sufi aesthetic influences, drawing from Islamic geometry, Sufi poetry, and Persian, Arab, and Turkic influences to enhance Kathak's visual vocabulary and expressive range. Her career has seen her perform at major venues, festivals, and on television internationally, including representing Pakistan as a Kathak dancer with former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's entourage in 1976. In 1978, her 13-episode visual encyclopedia, "Payal," aired in Pakistan but was banned by the military regime after its sixth episode. Facing a ban and blacklisting in Pakistan in 1979, she moved to England, where she continued to develop and teach Kathak. In the UK, Siddiqui began teaching at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in London in the late 1970s and introduced Kathak into the curriculum at the University of Surrey. She also established her own dance company in Birmingham. Since 2005, she has taught Kathak in Pakistan at the privately run Lahore Chitrakar and the National College of Arts, Lahore, and has conducted workshops at the Aga Khan University in Karachi. She currently runs the Nahid Siddiqui Foundation, which promotes dance, yoga, and music, and is working on a book about Kathak. Awards & Honours: Pride of Performance (1994), Time Out Award (1991), British Cultural Award, International Dance Award, The Digital Award, Faiz Ahmed Faiz Award, Dance Umbrella Award, Milapfest's Lifetime Achievement Award (2017), Lux Style Award (Lifetime Achievement Award) (2018), National Indian Arts Award (Lifetime Achievement Award).