Zakhidova, Liutfi

Born Nov. 6, 1925, in Kanibadam. Soviet ballerina. People’s Artist of the USSR (1957). Member of the CPSU since 1957.

In 1938, after her appearance at the All-Union Competition in Moscow, Zakhidova was accepted by the Song and Dance Ensemble of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. In 1941 she joined the S. Aini Theater of Opera and Ballet in Dushanbe. She has also performed Tadzhik folk dances in concerts. Zakhidova is the first ballet performer in the Tadzhik Republic to master the technique of classical ballet. In 1943 she made her debut in the role of Lise in Hertel’s La Fille mal gardee. Her dancing is characterizd by lyricism and gentleness as well as by a dramatic quality. Among her other roles are Maria in Asafev’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Leili in Balsanian’s Leili and Medzhnun; (State Prize of the USSR, 1949), and Cinderella in Prokofiev’s ballet of the same name. Zakhidova has toured abroad as a performer of Tadzhik folk dances (in the German Democratic Republic, Rumania, India, and other countries). A deputy to the third through fifth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Tadzhik SSR, she has been awarded two orders and various medals.