[1] Khayyam was born in Sylhet Division, Bangladesh[2] and comes from a Muslim background where dance was frowned upon.
She trained in London initially with Alpana Sengupta before[2] attending local dance classes under the direction of Kathak specialist,[4] dancer, choreographer and teacher Sushmita Ghosh in 1996,[2] part of which she trained three years at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Educational Trust in London.
[5] She has toured extensively both nationally and internationally with her own work as well as for other companies[2] such as Sonia Sabri, and has worked with dancers/choreographers including,[5] Kumudini Lakhia,[2] Nahid Siddiqui,[5] Filip Van Huffel,[2] Darshan Singh Bhuller, and Jonathan Lunn.
[1] In 2014, Khayyam adapted Federico García Lorca's play Yerma, setting it in a modern, inner-city British community to neo-classical Kathak dance and performed to live music with tabla, cello and vocals.
[5] Khayyam also teaches BA Hons Dance and Culture degree at the University of Surrey.