Women who move us
Jordan Hazrati
Accredited Human Factors Specialist, qualified dance teacher, writer and blogger and private pilot. Lover of all travel, sunset chasing, family, basset hounds and generally trying to make my corner of this world a better, happier, and more progressive space. I'm also a proud Board Member of AWA DANCE.
When was the moment you knew you wanted a career in dance?
Dance has been a part of my life consistently for 28 years now, but the moment I knew I wanted some form of career involving dance was probably when I was 16. I had never considered myself as a dancer before this point – I wasn’t the stereotypical slim built dancer shape (I’ve always been much more athletic) and I was always considered more of a singer/actor despite loving how dance made me feel. However, when I went into full – time performing arts study at 16, I really connected with a teacher who saw my potential in both dance and offered me opportunity in other ways too such as choreography, being the dance captain for shows and routines, and as time went on, I realised that my role in the dance community was more one of leadership. The rest I suppose is history!
What is a quote you live by?
So many great ones. But I love ‘glass ceilings make great dance floors’ because I’ve taken great pride in my life in staring a perceived ‘glass ceiling’ in the face and metaphorically tap dancing all over it.
If you could have lunch with any woman (living or from the past), who would you pick and why?
Kamala Harris – not just because of the incredible work she’s done during her career, but because of the way she’s done it and how she’s held herself in the process. She really does operate at the intersection of pressure, history and expectation and still shows up educated, informed, with clarity and class. She navigates rooms that weren’t built for her, and she does it with strength.
Is it more important to be liked or respected?
Respected. No doubt about it. But I believe the two are closely interlinked. I struggle to like or warm to people that I can’t respect due to the lack of trust that inevitably follows.
How do you manage stress?
I book a flight. I joke… but I do find leaving the country a useful way for me to switch off and re-ground myself (I think it relates to physically removing myself from the day-to-day environment that I live and work in). I am someone who can be prone to overcommitment and burnout, so it’s something I’ve had to go on a journey with through my 20s and have a toolkit that I can dip in and out of to not get to that place. Travel, theatre, dancing, reading, journalling, writing, walking the dog, yoga, weightlifting… a whole manner of things really help. If all else fails, I’ve got an amazing family, and nothing can beat popping home to spend time with them and put the world to right!
Where is your happy place?
Sitting in the golden hour sunshine, overlooking the sea or a beautiful mountain view with my family is where I am absolutely at my happiest. It refocuses my mind onto the true vastness of this beautiful planet we’re so lucky to call home, and that we really all are truly a tiny cog in the whole system that surrounds us. The golden hour light does something to my soul, and my family really are my world so of course they’d have to be there.
If you were a fruit or vegetable, which would you be and why?
I’d be a fig. Not everyone’s first choice, or the most appealing, but once you open it, it’s layered, full of depth and is subtly connected to my Middle-Eastern heritage which has no doubt shaped who I am today.
In our dance sector, what do you think is the most pressing issue for women and girls right now and what are you doing about it?
This is tricky because what I think I’m going to talk about is multi-layered and complex so it might feel like I’m brushing the surface, and I don’t do this justice, but for me the sexualisation of young girls, and later women, in the dance industry is something I’d like to see changed and urgently. I can’t even begin to explain how my heart sinks when I watch 8, 9, 10-year-old girls standing on a stage, scantily clad, dancing suggestive choreography. This later develops into watching teenagers and dance college students performing very sexually suggestive routines, which essentially manifests into dancers graduating into the industry thinking that’s how they’re supposed to move to be successful and contribute meaningfully to the progression of the dance industry. I’ve been subject to it through my training too (I remember my poor dad sitting through a full – time college parents talk where one of the faculty mentioned that ‘sex sells so get used to it parents) and I look back now and wish I’d have had the knowledge, and strength to do more to fight against this. A lot of this links in with the lack of appropriate governance and requirements needed to become a qualified teacher, which leads to well-intentioned dancers or enthusiasts setting up dance schools and colleges, without the appropriate safeguarding and pedagogical knowledge to protect girls and women, but fundamentally, unless this changes, all that we are teaching girls and women to be is props of the male desire rather than be creatives, innovators, activists, and artists. As for what I’m doing about it I am constantly reflecting on my teaching practise to see if what I say and do reflects how I’d like to see the industry progress and what the message I’m communicating to my dancers is, as well as educating people where I can on the importance of the issue and why it matters. I add my voice to conversations where I can, and I support work that feels like it places girls and women into a position where they can safely grow and perform as an artist.
What’s something you regret in your professional dance career?
Believing that to be successful I had to do what other perceivably successful people had done (copying choreography, outfits, career paths …) It’s hard when you feel that success perhaps isn’t coming to you as easily, but as I’ve matured, I’ve realised that success manifests itself in many ways, and that my squiggly career path is beautiful in its own right. Oh – and girl you do not need to force your body into the splits. It doesn’t want to do them, it’s not made to do them, and you’ll save yourself a lot of pain if you respect the limits of your body (ps not once have I ever been rejected for a job because I couldn’t do the splits).
What question do you wish more people would ask you?
‘Who really are you, beyond the job title’ … We often entwine our identity to that of our title and accolades, but behind every single person, is a beautiful story and authentic soul just waiting to be heard. People really do have the most beautiful stories just waiting to be unlocked.
What are the 3 leadership traits that best define you?
Authentic, empathetic, and bold
What book/film/documentary do you recommend most to others?
What a fabulously difficult question – aren’t we so lucky to have so much choice here! A book that I consistently recommend though is ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ (it’s actually just had a run as a play too here in the UK). Written by Khaled Hosseini (who you may also know from the book The Kite Runner) the story has themes of female endurance, deep bonds, and what survival can really look like when the world repeatedly tries to erase you. It’s not always an easy read, but it’s a powerful one.
Which lesson has been the hardest to learn?
I’d say that letting go is often easier, less painful and the better option than clinging on to something that just isn’t meant for you. I think we feel like whether it be people, jobs, relationships, expectations of self, holding on shows strength but actually it’s often fear in disguise (fear of failure, fear of change, fear of the unknown). Letting go can bring so much peace and clears room for new paths and experiences.
What's next for you?
As well as continuing my work in teaching, and supporting AWA Dance, the next big milestone is a likely return to education to complete my Doctorate (currently I’m scoping out what this might look like and what will be the subject of my work for the next 4/5 years).
Cinderella, Pocahontas, Alice in Wonderland or Malefica?
I’d say Pocahontas – guided by values rather than the trend or the loudest voice and connected to something deeper feeling what’s right and what’s wrong in her body. Pocahontas reminds me that strength and leadership isn’t about control, it’s about compassion, intuition, and standing firm in who you are and what you believe in.
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