Bilqis Hijjas writes, produces, performs and teaches dance in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As the President of MyDance Alliance, a membership organization supporting dance in Malaysia, she has programmed and produced recurring performance platforms, dance festivals, and mentorship programs for emerging choreographers, as well as various other local productions and workshops. Bilqis also directs the dance program at private arts centre Rimbun Dahan outside Kuala Lumpur, which offers residencies for contemporary dance choreographers.

Bilqis lectures in dance criticism and performing arts theory at the University of Malaya. She runs Critics Republic, an online platform for written criticism of Malaysian art, which seeks to encourage critical discussion among the audience.

Bilqis is also the Vice President for Southeast Asia for the volunteer regional organization World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific. In this capacity, she would like to continue her work by building bridges between the contemporary dance communities in the region: facilitating discussions, collaboration and performance circuits.

Bilqis Hijjas is attending Dance Massive are part of the Asia Network for Dance (AND+) Core Group meeting.

Dates attending Dance Massive: 15 - 20 March

Bilqis Hijjas’ visit is supported by AND+ and The Australia Council for the Arts.