Lutfi Zohidova

Lutfi Zohidova (Tajik: Лутфи Зоҳидова; 6 November 1925 – 10 October 1995) was a Tajik ballet dancer.

Zohidova was born in Konibodom, and became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1957. She studied at the Dushanbe Women's Pedagogical Institute, and from 1939 until 1941 was a member of the Union of Workers Ensemble in Moscow; in the latter year she was accepted as a member of the Tajik Ballet. Her debut with the company came in La fille mal gardée by Peter Ludwig Hertel, and she performed as a soloist at the theater throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Among the most notable roles which she essayed during her career were Maria in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai by Boris Asafyev; Odette in Swan Lake by Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky; Leyla in Leyla and Majnun by Sergey Balasanian; and the title roles in Cinderella by Sergei Prokofiev; La Esmeralda by Cesare Pugni, and Dilbar by Alexander Lensky. She also directed the Dushanbe School of Choreography for a time. She toured with the company in June 1961. Shortly thereafter she retired from the ballet and became an instructor.[1] Zohidova won many plaudits for her dancing during her career; in 1949, she was recognized for her performance as Leyla by the Soviet government with the Stalin Prize. She became a People's Artist of the USSR in 1957; among her other awards are the Red Banner of Labor and the Order of the Badge of Honour.