About Us

Ishami Dance Company is a contemporary dance company whose work treads the line between commercial and experimental, and centers queerness, South Asian diasporic cultural identity, and universal stories of identity and belonging. Our mission is to explore, unite and amplify the diverse voices, stories and histories of the South Asian diaspora and dismantle social and cultural constructs and spark conversations through art.

Through their performances and dance education initiatives they invite their audiences to engage with their work and vision and celebrate the intersectionality of their identities.

Ishami was founded by Amit Patel & Ishika Seth in the San Francisco Bay Area and consists of several dance artists with unique and varied dance backgrounds and experiences.

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Mission Statement

Ishami’s mission is to explore, unite, and amplify the diverse voices, stories, and histories of the South Asian Diaspora, dismantle social and cultural constructs, through the performing arts. 

To create work using the idiom of South Asian Contemporary dance, treading the line between traditional and modern.  We aspire to show the beauty and immense range of South Asian Contemporary movement with our audiences locally and across the globe.

We value inclusivity, innovation, risk-taking and cultural exchange, to create work that is ethereal yet thought-provoking, in a safe space, where artists can tap into their full potential and outgrow their limits. Cultivating individuality, clarity of intention and crossing global boundaries to share stories and spark conversation.

Meet the Founders

Amit Patel & Ishika Seth have been creating work and performing together for over a decade. Ishami stems from their vision to center South Asian diasporic experience through a queer, feminist lens, through contemporary dance art. Highlights of their work include receiving the Audience's Choice Award for “Broken Memories'' at SJDanceCo.’s ChoreoProject Awards in 2016 at San Jose State University, receiving the first place for their self-shot digital dance project “Fragments'' for Nrittam 2020, hosted by Urshilla Dance Company in India, being the first South Asian group on the Pride Mainstage as part of Parivar Bay Area,  and creating an evening length show titled “Unearthed-Untold Stories of the Ramayana,” at the ODC theater in 2022. Ishami is an evolution of their work and a structure to support it in this next phase.
 They are inspired to create a space where dancers can develop their own individuality, build community and share authentic stories.

Ishika Seth (she/her)

Ishika Seth (she/her) is a choreographer, dancer, dance educator and writer. Her work is rooted in storytelling, dismantling social constructs and embracing the intersection of various global dance forms that exist within her body. Through her art, she reflects and questions, celebrates and shatters various aspects of the world around us. Her work centers women’s voices and stories.

She has been a professional dance artist since 2007, self-producing work at festivals, choreographing stage and digital work, dance tours, and self-producing shows. She has a B.A. in Dance from San Jose State University.

She has been a choreographer for theatrical productions produced by San Jose Lyric Opera, Aurora Theater in Berkeley, San Francisco State University, Stanford Savoyards, Chthonic Theater in Oakland and Artistes Unlimited in India.

She studied Indian Contemporary Dance & jazz in India and was a part of Santosh Nair’s company Sadhya. She studied Mayurbhanj Chhau with Guru J. J. Sai Babu and yoga and movement in her childhood years with her grandmother, who was an attendee of the Uday Shankar School of Dance in Almorah, India.

She was the Assistant Artistic Director of the Mona Khan Company from 2011-2021and danced with Noorani Dance for a season.

Amit Patel (he/him)

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Amit Patel, a native of Fremont, CA, is a dancer, choreographer, teacher and creative director living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As a first-generation born Indian-American, he strives to fuse his cultures, combining his Indian culture and global training to explore Indian Contemporary dance movement. He is notable for his rebellious pieces in heels which challenge the norms of sexual identity and gender expression in dance.

He has taught and performed internationally, for the Nordic largest Indian Dance Festival in Tampere, Finland; as well as in England, Spain, France, Greece, Canada and India.

His dance training consists of jazz, ballet, Bollywood/Indian Fusion, and extensive training in contemporary and modern dance.

His professional stage experience includes 10+ years as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher at the Mona Khan Company, 6+ years with Bliss Dance Company, and a performance season with Pietre Dance Theater in Los Angeles.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, his work in is rooted in exposing communities to different types of queerness and deconstructing gender roles and identity in the arts. He is dedicated to creating safe spaces for dancers and bringing forth marginalized stories through his work.

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Meet the Artists