A century after Leyla Bedir Khan's performance in Stockholm

Rudaw Net

17-02-2025

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - On this day in 1925, the Kurdish princess and ballet dancer Leyla Bedir Khan performed at the Royal Musical Academy (Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien) in the Swedish capital Stockholm.
Her captivating performance earned widespread attention from Swedish newspapers. Aftonbladet wrote, 'This young lady will bring Stockholmers to their feet with her magnificent dance at the Academy of Music on Tuesday.' The review marked one of Bedir Khan's earliest performances.
After visiting Austria and Romania, Leyla Bedir Khan was among the first six Kurds to arrive in Sweden in the early 20th century.
The head of the Concert Company (Konsertbolaget) Helmer Enwall invited the foreign artist to perform in Stockholm. Swedish newspapers wrote that Leyla had won the admiration of the audiences in Vienna and become a sensation in particular with her native dance called Shopi.
The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter wrote that Bedir Khan first appeared in front of an audience in Vienna in 1924 before she arrived in Stockholm.
The journal added that one could see the first signs of the 'Leyla fever' (en Leila-feber) spreading across Europe, anticipating that 'the beautiful princess will also visit our northern lands.'
Indeed, in the fall of 1925, the Princess arrived in Sweden. Svenska Dagbladet wrote that Leyla is a unique person who has taken her place in the world of dance as a queen.
Some newspapers have used the word 'exotic' in their headlines. Dagens Nyheter has compared Leyla to the Indian artist Nyota Inyoka, who had visited Sweden in 1924.
The historic building where the night of Bedir Khan's performance took place in the center of Stockholm, at the Royal Academy of Music located at "Nybrokajen 11" which faces the famous Strandvägen Street and the Royal Dramaten Theater.
The Academy of Music building was built in 1878 and has one of the largest concert halls in the building, where the Nobel Prize was first awarded in 1901.
In that same hall, which has seating for 474 people, Bedir Khan performed and according to newspaper reports, the hall was packed that night and tickets sold out.
The Austrian musician Marcel Lorber accompanied Leyla by playing the piano. The words dance, music, and theater were used extensively in Bedir Khan's tour, representing the three pillars of world culture.
Dagens Nyheter wrote that the princess presented Kurdish, Iranian, Caucasian, Egyptian, Spanish, and Turkish dances.
The Stockholm audience warmly embraced the Kurdish ballet dancer with thunderous applause and expressed their joy. Sometimes the applause did not end so that the artist could repeat the same number (da capo). The diversity of her costumes was also greatly appreciated by the audience.
Although she was still at the beginning of her career, she made a great effort to win the hearts of Stockholmers in 1925. Her stardom had risen even more by 1930 when she had made a name for herself as a global artist.
When comparing the news before and after the night, one sees that dance critics presented several different opinions.
Bedir Khan's dance night consisted of two segments. Critics liked the second segment more, especially the numbers called Kurdish Dance and Bibi.
Some newspapers also criticized repetitions and lack of liveliness. For example, the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet wrote that her mysterious movements had disappeared and her movements became too simple.
After her performance at the Royal Academy of Music, she stayed in Stockholm for about two weeks, performing as a guest at the Folk Theatre (Folkteatern, Folkan) in the Ostermalm district of the capital.
Opposite the Folk Theatre is the magnificent and beautiful Covered Market (Saluhall) which was built in 1888. The Kurdish Sherif Pasha who was the Ottoman ambassador in Stockholm, lived in that neighborhood for about ten years from 1898 until 1908.
The princess had a good opportunity to get to know the Swedes and their capital, Stockholm during her stay.
One newspaper wrote that the dancer's beauty and talent placed her among the stars. In a Swedish magazine, she was considered one of the great beauties.
Most of the Swedish news stories were published before or after the Kurdish dancers' performance in 1925.
Newspapers reported about her travels to other countries. One of the major newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet, published a long article in 1924 before her arrival, which began with the words: 'Who is Leyla Bedir Khan?' The article shed light on Bedir Khan's family history.
Swedish newspapers also presented their views on the princess during her stay in Sweden and conducted several interviews with her.
Some journalists compared her to Jews and Hungarians, while others compared her to true Indo-Europeans. She was presented as a beautiful European girl who spoke about six languages.
In these interviews, she often spoke about her family, her father Abdurrezzak Bedir Khan, and the Kurdish cause. The newspapers called Bedir Khan's father an emperor (Kejsare) and therefore she was introduced as the "Princess of Kurdistan" (Prinsessan av Kurdistan).
According to the princess, her father was once the ruler of the city of Van in southeast Turkey (Bakur).
In one interview, she says that her father tried hard to form a union with the Russians so that the Kurds could be liberated and free, however, he failed and was killed.
Newspapers reporting on her dance night (dansafton) drew readers' attention to the fact that a Kurdish princess had become a dancer which amazed them. For this reason, the words princess and dancer were often used together when describing her.
One newspaper summed it up as follows: 'The times are like this' (Sådana äro tiderna).
Stockholms-Tidningen (The Stockholm newspaper) reported that in a place like Kurdistan, which is part of Iran, the Ottoman Empire, and Mesopotamia, no ruler is immune to misfortunes.
As a result, the name Bedir Khan became increasingly important in writing the history of the Kurdish women's movement. She served as a historical example for breaking taboos and supporting women's freedom.
On the other hand, she is one of the Kurdish women who went to Europe and Sweden for the first time in the 20th century. This visit is a bright page in the history of Kurdish-Swedish relations.
Sixty-six years after her time in Stockholm, in 1991, Swedish and Kurdish artists held a gala in and around the same venue where she performed. The gala was held in the square of the Ostermalm district in central Stockholm.