2024-02-12 05:02:22
With the departure of People’s Artist Rafiga Akhundova, Azerbaijani choreographic art suffered a great loss.
Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the Baku Academy of Choreography, acting rector Nailya Mammadzadeh said this to Trend on Tuesday at the farewell ceremony for the People’s Artist of Azerbaijan, outstanding ballet dancer and choreographer Rafiga Akhundova, Day.Az reports.
The farewell ceremony takes place at the Teze Pir mosque in Baku. The People’s Artist will be buried in the second Alley of Honor.
“Rafiga Akhundova is for us not only a choreographer, not only a great ballet dancer, she was also a wonderful, magnificent person. I will never forget how she rehearsed with us, with what warmth she treated children, the younger generation, it’s worth a lot. We always communicated with her, loved her, and treated her with great respect,” said Nailya Mammadzade.
Let us note that Rafiga Akhundova was born on August 7, 1931 in Baku. She graduated from the Baku Choreographic School (now the Baku Academy of Choreography), where her teacher was the legendary Gamar Almaszade. In 1951-1952 she took courses at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (Russia). Since 1952, she began working at the State Opera and Ballet Theater (now the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater). Since 1971 she has been a choreographer, and since 1990 – the main choreographer of the theater. She performed roles in such productions as “Seven Beauties” by Gar Garayev, “The Maiden Tower” by Afrasiyab Badalbeyli, “The Sleeping Beauty” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, “Walpurgis Night” by Charles Gounod, “Gulshan” by Soltan Hajibekov, “The Legend of Love” by Arif Melikov, “Bakhchisarai fountain” by Boris Asafiev, “Giselle” by Adolphe Anan and others. Together with her husband, the famous choreographer and choreographer, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan Magsud Mamedov, she staged the ballets “Caspian Ballad”, “Shadows of Gobustan”, “Kaleidoscope”, “Path of Thunder”, “Seven Beauties”, “Azerbaijan Suite”, “Yalli”, ” Mugam”, “Babek”, “Nutcracker”. Over the years, she worked as a choreographer and teacher in Algeria, Sweden, Egypt, Belgium, Russia and Turkey, where she staged ballets of Azerbaijani classics.