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Amit Patel

@_amitdances

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Director | Storyteller | San Francisco 📍
Founder: @ishamidancecompany @desidancecommunity

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There is something so magical and surreal getting my mehendi done while feeling completely surrounded by so much love and community 🥺🥰 love you so much @queerbrownboy_

Thank you @toral1 for creating something so special ❤️
#loveislove #mehendi by @_amitdances

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a month ago

Husbands. ❤️ Five years in the making, and in so many ways, a future we never could have imagined.

There was a time when a love like ours wasn’t always something you could picture getting to celebrate this openly, surrounded by family, friends, community, and so much love. But people change. Families change. Society changes. And somehow, here we are.

What a blessing and an honor it is to be able to share this moment so openly.

We’re here. We made it here. And now, husbands. ❤️

Photography: @zoartphotography
MUA: @ektadoshii
Mehendi: @toral1
Wedding team: @evedecorpamila

Amit
Outfit: @manshaaobsession @styledbyambika
Hair: @by.aanal
Draped: @mskrukru

Ashiesh
Outfit: @purusham
Shoes: @around.always
Jewelry: @bhavyarameshjewelry

#loveislove #sanfrancisco #wedding #husbands #AmitandAshiesh taken in San Francisco, California by @_amitdances

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a month ago

This is Ishami.

A glimpse into the movement, stories, and artists that make up Ishami Dance Company.
Ishami Dance Company is a contemporary dance company based in the San Francisco Bay Area, blending South Asian and global dance forms with modern storytelling. Centering queerness, women’s voices, and experiences of the South Asian diaspora, Ishami creates work that sparks conversations through art.

Founders and directors: @amitdances_, @ishika_dance.
Creative Director: @akhildances

Edited by: @honnafzal
#IshamiDanceCompany #IndianContemporary #SouthAsianDance #BayAreaDance #QueerArt taken in San Francisco, California by @_amitdances

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24 days ago

“Khwab” at the South Asian Literature and Arts Festival 📚

This piece imagines a future where we can all live freely as ourselves. It is an excerpt from “Pehchaan”, a full length work that explores our diasporic identities.

We had an incredible time sharing this work with the SALA community!

@artforumsf

Choreographed by @_amitdances @ishika_dance
📽️: @honnafzal
#IshamiDanceCompany #Pehchaan #SALAFestival #IndianContemporary #BayAreaDance taken in San Francisco Bay Area by @_amitdances

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19 days ago

Every city has brought its own energy, and San Francisco didn’t hold back.🫶🏾

We had the best time at our ✨Best of the Best✨Bollywood dance class, led by @amitdances. And then @amrynkhurana, who plays Sumi in the film, surprised everyone by joining in and dancing right alongside the class.🥹

Watching friends and OG dancers from the BOB era come together through dance has been one of the sweetest parts of this journey. San Francisco, thank you for showing up with so much heart.♥️

📌 Made possible by @pri.planned.it x @bolly_hero x @netflix x @netflixgolden x @_amitdances x @desidancecommunity

🎥 @sfphotoagency

Best of the Best is streaming now on Netflix!🎬 taken in San Francisco, California by @_amitdances

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19 days ago

Reflecting on our journey as individual artists, our collective journey, and what led us to create Ishami Dance Company. Thank you @namritayuhanna for having us on Off The Cuff on Bolly 92.3 FM.

Stay tuned to learn about what makes Ishami’s work unique and vital in the Bay Area as well as the larger arts ecosystem.
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#ishamidancecompany #founders #contemporarydance #bayarea taken in San Francisco Bay Area by @_amitdances

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24 days ago

“Primal Rhythms” at @factsf.

This work explores animalistic movements and characteristics as an allegory for human behavior. It challenges what is civilized versus uncivilized in the midst of political turmoil, dispute over territory, and the emergence of greed.

📷: @robbiesweeny

Directed by: @ishika_dance
Choreography: @akshay_radia @_amitdances @ishika_dance
Dancers: @akshay_radia @ishika_dance @sakshi.prabhu @ektadoshii @akhil.dances
Music: @akhildances
Costume: @ishikadance

#ishamidancecompany #contemporarydance #liveperformance #bayareadance by @_amitdances

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25 days ago

Sometimes, you choose a life that feels true to you, and life gives you more than you ever dared to imagine.

Existing should never be so difficult that you begin to question whether you belong. There is room for all of us, even if some are still learning how to share it.

How we live, the love we celebrate, and the life we build are ours to embrace. And what a beautiful life it’s becoming.

We know how blessed we are. In a world where people are still persecuted and killed simply for who they are, being able to love openly is a freedom we hold with deep gratitude.

So we’re here. Loving, thriving, and looking quite at home in a life we once only dreamed of.

May everyone find something as fulfilling as we’ve found in simply living ours. 🤍

Photography: @zoartphotography
MUA: @ektadoshii
Mehendi: @toral1
Wedding team: @evedecorpamila

Amit
Outfit: @manshaaobsession @styledbyambika
Hair: @by.aanal
Draped: @mskrukru

Ashiesh
Outfit: @purusham
Shoes: @around.always
Jewelry: @bhavyarameshjewelry

#loveislove #sanfrancisco #queerwedding #husbands #AmitandAshiesh taken in San Francisco, California by @_amitdances

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a month ago

I grew up in a world where being queer often meant learning which parts of yourself to reveal, which parts to protect, and which dreams felt too impossible to even say out loud.

And yet, somewhere inside me, there was always this version of my life waiting to exist.

I left Delhi with ambition, uncertainty, and a stubborn belief that there had to be a place in this world where I could live completely as myself. I found my way across oceans, built a life in San Francisco, fell in love, and somehow the dreams that once felt almost rebellious became my reality.

And then I got married. 🤍

Not hiding. Not compromising. Not imagining some alternate version of what my life could have been.

I stood there in an outfit that was exactly as dramatic as the occasion required, surrounded by our families and the people we love, marrying my husband and living a moment that a younger queer boy in Delhi could never have fully imagined for himself.

There is something incredibly emotional about realizing that the life you once quietly hoped might be possible has become the life you actually get to live.

So yes, this picture is about the sherwani, the jewels, the lighting, the drama and the absolutely unreasonable amount of time I spent making sure every detail was perfect. 😂

Bridezilla? Perhaps.
But after waiting this long to live my dream, did anyone really expect subtlety?

Delhi taught me where I came from.
San Francisco gave me the freedom to become who I am.
Love gave me a home.

And somewhere along the way, that queer kid with an impossible dream grew up, married the man he loves, and became the bride he was always destined to be. ✨

Turns out, some dreams just need a little courage, a lot of miles, and a truly unreasonable amount of wedding planning. 🤍

Outfit : @purusham
Shoes : @around.always
Jewellery: @bhavyarameshjewelry

#gay #indiangay #gaywedding #queer #queerwedding taken in San Francisco, California by @_amitdances

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a month ago

We carve our dreams into objects, large or small. The emotions we hold but fail to honour, we try to express through the things we create, trusting that they will outlive us when we are gone, trusting that they will carry something of us through the layers of time, like water seeping through rocks... Each historical artefact, therefore, is a silent plea from ancestors to descendants, “Do not judge us too harshly.” We make art to leave a mark for the future, a slight kink in the river of stories, which flows too fast and too wildly for any of us to comprehend.
- Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky

Forever grateful to be able to create and share stories with yall. @ishika_dance @akhildances @akshay_radia @ektadoshii @kanchan.raju @sakshi.prabhu @sanjana.kerketta @shivani_sawai29

📸: @chinara.photography
🏠: @ishamidancecompany
📍: @ybgfestival @yerbabuenagardenssf taken in San Francisco, California by @_amitdances

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2 months ago

Our Co-Founder, Ishika Seth, on Ishami's unique approach to costuming.
We are always conscious of comfort, individuality, and how a costume influences a dancer's performance, because what a costume says about the person wearing it matters just as much as how it looks. Which is why it stings when that meaning gets taken by someone else.

Swipe through for the full piece.

@ishika_dance
#ishamidancecompany #indiancontemporary #contemporarycostuming #comfortovercostume by @_amitdances

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2 months ago

2011 to this most recent pic on 2026. Grateful for our collaboration through the years. Nothing more beautiful than having someone who you completely align with in terms of your love for dance and the vision for what and how you want to continue to create and engage with art.

📷 (in blue): @orix_nexus @chinara.photography
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#dancers #dancepartner #collaboration #ishamidancecompany #friendshipgoals by @_amitdances

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2 months ago