Where Art Finds Freedom.
Transcend
Led by Sheema Kermani · Summer 2024
Twelve trans women. Thirty-two sessions of classical dance with Sheema Kermani. A program engineered to turn shame into release — and a theatre company that refused to end when the curtain fell.
- 12
- Participants chosen
- 32
- Sessions
- 12
- Minute finale
In the summer of 2024, twelve trans women were chosen from twenty-two who applied. They spent two months learning to take the things that don't usually leave the body — the rejection, the names they were called as children, the trauma — and release them through classical dance. Transcend, led by Sheema Kermani, spanned thirty-two sessions, and was engineered to enable participants to release their shame.
In motion
Thirty-two sessions of release
85%
felt measurably better by the end of the program
What came after
They tracked their own mental health before and after. And by the end, eighty-five percent of them felt measurably better. It ended with a twelve-minute stage performance at the PMA Auditorium, built entirely from their own lives, performed in front of the press. And the group didn't disband after that. They named themselves the Khuwab Raqs Theatre and kept going — to Human Rights Conferences, to the Hijra Festival, and with more to come.
Khuwab Raqs Theatre — born from Transcend, still performing.
Impact
85% of participants felt measurably better · Khuwab Raqs Theatre formed