Nahid siddiqui biography

Nahid Siddiqui (born 1956) is an exponent of Kathak dance.
Nahid Siddiqui is an exponent of Kathak dance.
Nahid Siddiqui is one of the finest Kathak dancers and choreographers in the world.

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Biography

Nahid Siddiqui is one of the finest Kathak dancers and choreographers in the world. Her work has been recognized and acclaimed internationally. She has personally contributed hugely to the growth of and accessibility to Kathak through efforts such as starting classes at the Bharatya Vidya Bhavan in London and introducing Kathak into the curriculum at the at the University of Surrey. Nahid's creations have been original and ground-breaking, blending traditional and contemporary techniques extending Kathak's repertory and developing it as a universal vocabulary. Nahid has lived in the West Midlands for almost twenty years and has had countless students, performances for major venues, festivals and television world-wide. Her work has received numerous accolades in Britain and around the world, including Pakistan's highest artistic merit, the Pride of Performance.

Nahid Siddiqui has acquired her artistry in the formal tradition of seena baseena (one-on-one training) by two renowned Gurus: Maharaj Ghulam Hussain Kathak and Pandit Birju Maharaj. During the cours

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“This is your prayer”– the kathak of Nahid Siddiqui

Nahid Siddiqui grew up in a traditional family in Karachi and felt “lucky to have been born into a family that never hindered my growth”. She describes her mother as beautiful, and says she had an eye for beauty and aesthetics. Nahid’s father loved calligraphy and taught his daughter to write on a takhti (a small wooden board for writing on with a reed pen and ink). He also made sure that she walked well, with her spine properly aligned. He was jailed for a time under Ayub Khan’s martial law, when her mother took employment as a singer on the radio to support her children, discarding her burqa. Her father understood when he saw Nahid practising that her dance was an art and he said to her: “This is your prayer.” Nahid trained with Maharaj Ghulam Hussain Kathak in Pakistan and Pandit Birju Maharaj in India.

Her journey as a performer and instructor in kathak in the UK began in the late 1970s (at a time when her art was deemed un-Islamic in Pakistan) with dance classes at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London. She went on to introd