Amina Khayyam is a Bangladeshi-born British dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. She is acclaimed for her progressive work within Kathak's intricate and detailed theatrical movements of abhinaya.^[1]

Khayyam was born in Sylhet Division, Bangladesh^[2] and comes from a Muslim background where dance was frowned upon.^[3]

She trained in London initially with Alpana Sengupta before joining the dancer, choreographer and teacher Sushmita Ghosh in 1996, part of which she trained three years at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Educational Trust in London.^[2]

AMINA KHAYYAM DANCE COMPANY, the UK-based contemporary dance company who use KATHAK as the core narrative in making new work, is based in the south of England and run by its founder and artistic director, Amina Khayyam.^[4]

In 2001, Khayyam made her professional debut at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre.^[4] Her performance ranges from classical Kathak, in which, she has received high accolades for her Abhinaya, to multi-media performances such as the principle performer in the Akademi/South Bank's outdoor spectacle Escapade in 2003^[2] and in International Arts' and Forum for Laboratory Theatres of Manipuri's production of Macbeth-Stage of Blood on the River Thames.^[4]

She has toured extensively both nationally and internationally with her own work as well as for other companies^[2] such as Sonia Sabri, and has worked with dancers/choreographers including,^[4] Kumudini Lakhia,^[2] Nahid Siddiqui,^[4] Filip Van Huffel,^[2] Darshan Singh Bhuller and Jonathan Lunn. Khayyam uses Kathak as the core of her work; in Laal Shaari,^[4] which combined live art process with Kathak movement and she presented at mac, it was selected for ROH2 Firsts.^[4] She has also appeared at the mac in Sonia Sabri's Red and zeroculture's production of Find Me Amongst the Black.^[1]

In 2014, Khayyam adapted Federico García Lorca's play Yerma, setting it in a modern, inner-city British community to neo-classical Kathak dance and performed to live music with tabla, cello and vocals.^[4][5] Khayyam herself dances the title role.^[6][7][8] In the same year, she made a full production of^[4] A Thousand Faces.^[1] She also made a mid scale production Amad.^[4]

Khayyam also teaches BA Hons Dance and Culture degree at the University of Surrey.^[9]

• British Bangladeshi
• List of British Bangladeshis

• Official website
• Amina Khayyam on X
• Amina Khayyam on Facebook