Roziya Karimova

Roziya Karimova was born in Kazan on 18 March 1916. In 1929 she entered the preparatory department of the Fergana medical technical school, where she took an active part in amateur performances and led a circle. In 1930, after standing out at amateur concerts, she was sent by order of the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR to the studio of the musical theatre in Samarkand, where she studied and worked at the same time. She finished the studio in 1932.

The theatre was later moved to Tashkent and became the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 1939–1957 Karimova was one of its soloists. She danced lyrical and heroic pieces as well as dramatic roles — Anorkhon in “Comrades”, Asal in “Gulsara”, Asia in “Arshin mal alan”. In her ballet parts she tried to combine the movements of Uzbek folk dance with pantomime.

In 1937 she was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour for performing folk dances at the Uzbek arts decade in Moscow. In 1939 she performed for the builders of the Great Fergana Canal. During the Second World War she gave concerts in hospitals and at the front with other Uzbek artists, and in 1943 was part of the group that performed in Tehran at a gala concert for Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. She became Honoured Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1942 and People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1950.

In 1957–1960 she was a ballet master at the Muqimiy Theatre, where she staged the dances for “Ravshan and Zulkhumor” and “Nurkhon”. From 1949 she taught at an institution of Uzbek dance and choreography, and from 1964 she was a senior researcher at the Hamza Institute of Art Studies.

Karimova wrote 17 books and teaching manuals on the history and theory of Uzbek dance. They record the movements and structure of the professional stage dances created by Tamara Khanum, Mukarrama Turgunbaeva and other masters. In 1983 she became a laureate of the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR, and in 1998 she was awarded the Order of El-yurt hurmati.

Roziya Karimova died in Tashkent on 15 March 2011, aged 94.