She has against all odds and challenges, spent decades of her life breathing hope, vitality, and exuberance to a dance form that has received very little state patronage and support.
Through sheer perseverance, she has not only earned the reputation of a prolific artist but has also singlehandedly set a formidable standard of quality, a refined sensibility of aesthetics, and an intricate system of technical expertise that has received much acclaim all over the world.
She is acknowledged for contributing her own style, technique, and expression (Gharana), which is imbued and informed by Islamic and Sufi aesthetics, sensibilities, and longing for ultimate union.
Payal, a dynamic thirteen-episode visual encyclopedia, aired in 1978, to date remains the only such endeavor in Pakistan in which Nahid Siddiqui collaborated with classical musicians, creating a masterpiece, which shed light on Kathak in a society where there was very little awareness of this art.
In England, where she lived in exile, Nahid Siddiqui inculcated the paradigms of Islamic geometry, Sufi poetry, Persian, Arab and Turkic influences in Kathak.
Through the in-depth understanding of Islamic geometry, Nahid Siddiqui has greatly enhanced the visual vocabulary of Kathak by striving to find the perfect posture and body alignment to paint evocative lines and compositions.
In times of violence, in a country facing an identity crisis, where ancient cultural teachings have been left to decay, she revisited her roots in Pakistan to do her bidding.