Malika Sobirova (Russian: Малика Сабирова, May 1942 — 27 February 1982) was a Soviet Tajik

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

dancer. She is considered the most famous Tajik ballet dancer. In 1969, she won a gold medal in an international ballet dance competition.

Early life

Sobirova was born in 1942 in

Dushanbe Dushanbe ( tg, Душанбе, ; ; russian: Душанбе) is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 863,400 and that population was largely Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe (r ...

, the capital of Tajikistan. Her father Ibragim Sabirov was a musician and her mother Madina Sabirova was a nurse. As a young girl she was very stubborn and refused to be frightened into an arranged marriage, as per the then prevalent practice; and instead pursued her talent in dance. She took her dancing course from Leningrad Choreography Academy (the Vaganova Ballet School), from where she graduated in 1961. It was a tradition among the students of this ballet school to consider themselves incomplete till they performed the Swan dance. She was also keen to learn the complete music of the ballet.

Career

In 1961, after graduating she returned to Dushanbe and joined Onegin Theatre. She also joined People's Artist of the USSR and regularly performed at Tchaikovsky Hall. She was proficient in all classical forms of ballet and won several international awards. As a solo ballet dancer her repertoire included all the classical forms, and performed in ballets like the Leili i Medzhnun (Leili and Medjnun) for which music score was provided by Balasanian. She was a popular ballet dancer in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. She was the most popular dancer of the Opera and Ballet theater which was established in 1940. She was delighted like a child when people recognized her in the bus or total strangers greeted her as a

ballerina A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on yea ...

Awards

She received the first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Ballet Contest in Moscow. In 1969, Sobirova won a gold medal in an international ballet dance competition held in

Varna, Bulgaria Varna ( bg, Варна, ) is the third-largest List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, city in Bulgaria and the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in the Northern Bulgaria region. Situated strategically in the ...

. She was also recipient of Tadzhik Komsomol Central Committee order "The Badge of Honor." The first international ballet dancing contest held in Dushanbe was named after her and President

Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Comm ...

sent greetings on the occasion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sobirova, Malika Russian ballerinas 1942 births 1982 deaths People from Dushanbe Tajikistani ballet dancers 20th-century Russian ballet dancers