Azzam Mohamed didn’t follow the usual route to becoming a choreographer. The self-trained Sydney, Australia–based dance artist tells Pancuover that he was raised in the Sharg en Nile district of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. When he was much younger, the city was a bustling commercial and cultural hub.
This was before a devastating civil war broke out between Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Back in those days, many Khartoum residents were engaged in the arts, but didn’t look upon it as a career opportunity.
“It’s something inherited in the culture and in our tradition,” Mohamed says over Zoom. “It’s almost like you see it everywhere—if there’s a newborn baby, weddings, graduation. You don’t really think about it as a skillset that I need to develop or train.”
In the old Khartoum, he adds, people were full of passion for poetry, comedy, and singing. Khartoum was also a music centre, thanks in part to the King of Sudanese Jazz, Sharhabil Ahmed. His wife, Zakia Abdul Gassim Abu Bakr, was the country’s first professional female guitarist. They inspired others, including a popular Sudanese band called The Scorpions.
Mohamed recalls how dance lovers in Khartoum would program an old Technics keyboard to create rhythms that they would save on floppy discs. Then, they would crank up the music and dance in the streets or at parties.
“There were no DJs,” Mohamed says. “Sometimes, you would have a singer with you to give a shout-out to the people in the neighbourhoods.”
This free-flowing spirit of the old Khartoum is what led Mohamed to conceive and choreograph Katma, which premiered at the Sydney Festival in 2025.
“It was just paying homage to my starting point,” he insists.
The Sudanese Arabic slang word katma literally means “no room to breathe”, and it can represent the feeling of being at a crowded dance party. This explains Mohamed’s decision to call his pulse-pounding immersive dance performance Katma.
It will have its Canadian premiere from Wednesday (June 17) to Saturday (June 20) as part of the Luminato Festival. in Toronto.
An all-ages event, Katma features seven dancers, including Mohamed, from a range of cultural backgrounds. The performers move through various street and club styles, including breaking, hip-hop, krump, waacking, locking, house, and Afro dances. Sometimes they do this in solos but they also perform collectively.
Mohamed met Katma crewmates at parties
Mohamed traces his ancestral roots to a small northern Sudanese community called Nuri. Situated the west side of the Nile River near Egypt, it’s the site of more than 20 ancient pyramids.
Many years ago, he spent time in Saudi Arabia before going to Malaysia to study engineering in university. In those days, Mohamed delved into street dancing’s battle scenes. Then in 2016, he moved to Australia, did some DJ work, and eventually hooked up with some of his crewmates at parties.
“They came in with different dance forms and different dance styles—and they party differently,” Mohamed says. “They have their own principles within their community. We all just now bring it into the room.”
Even though Katma is a living club with no seats, it’s not just a dance party. Mohamed’s goal is to help festivalgoers gain more empathy for different dance cultures. He also wants attendees to become curious about why performers might do a head spin, a back flip, throw their hands in the air or stomp on the floor. It’s his hope that they might even go on Google afterward and conduct some research to learn more.
“There is a reason why people are moving that way,” Mohamed says.
According to the choreographer, Katma begins with an acknowledgement of the realities of the world, including what’s happening in war-torn Sudan and Congo. Another performer-collaborator is Geny Navuzi, a Belgian dancer, performer, and educator from Congo. She co-founded Belgium’s Afrokultur festival.
Cultures expressed through dance
Mohamed gives crew members wide latitude to express themselves through dance forms that speak to their passions, talents, and cultures. As a choreographer, he doesn’t micro-manage their moves.
Angelica Osuji, for example, was born and raised in Brazil and spent some of her formative years in New Zealand. She anchors her artistic practice in Black experience, history, and culture.
Another performer in Katma, Naethiel “Tango” Lumbera, cites actor Bruce Lee as a major influence. Born in Australia to Filipino parents, Lumbera takes pride in the precision and emotional depth that he brings to dance. Meanwhile, Robin Chen incorporates many street styles into his performances.
“Robin and Tango collectively do house and breaking,” Mohamed says.
Yet another performer, Isabella Solisa, a.k.a. Ms. Kandy Divine, is an educator and veteran of the Sydney Art Festival. Molonai Makalio, is well known in Australian dance circles as a co-founder of Riddim Nation. Makalio incorporates his Polynesian culture into his artistic practice.
“Kandy and Nai do waacking and they’re involved in the disco scene,” Mohamed notes. “So, it was how can we approach this?”
One shows off locking moves and the other is a krumper.
“In acknowledging the origins of these forms, the Katma creatives extend gratitude to the communities who birthed them—the African diaspora, Black and Latino communities, and the LGBTQIA+ underground,” Luminato Festival website states. “The work celebrates dance as a shared language: a space where rhythm, movement, and presence transform a room of strangers into something electric.”
Mohamed points out that everyone on the team is excited to perform in Canada. Moreover, he wants Torontonians to understand that Katma creates authentic opportunities to be exposed to different cultures in a very human way. And, he emphasizes, there is no reason to feel intimidated on entering the space because everyone is on a level playing field.
“I really hope people come in as they are,” Mohamed says. “Just loosen up and really experience it.”
Watch the trailer for Katma.
Luminato Festival will present Katma in Ada Slaight Hall at Daniels Spectrum (585 Dundas Street, Toronto) from Wednesday (June 17) to Saturday (June 20). The creative producer is PYT Fairfield’s Gabriela Green Olea. For tickets and information, visit the Luminato Festival website.
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