Tamara Khanum

Tamara Khanum (1906–1991) was an Uzbek dancer of Armenian origin, known for being one of the first women in Uzbekistan to dance on stage without a paranja.[1][2] She was a colleague of ill-fated Uzbek dancer Nurkhon Yuldasheva, who was murdered in an honor killing for taking off her veil onstage.[3]

Tamara Khanum
Тамара Артёмовна Ханум
Born
Tamara Artemovna Petrosyan

29 March 1906
Margilan, Fergana Oblast, Russian Empire
Died30 June 1991
Tashkent, Uzbek SSR
OccupationDancer, choreographer, ballet instructor
AwardsStalin prize
People's Artist of the USSR
Order of Lenin

Early life

Khanum was born as Tamara Artyomovna Petrosyan to an Armenian family in the Uzbek city of Margilan in the Ferghana valley of Central Asia, then part of the Russian Empire.[4] Khanum showed interest in dance as a child, singing and dancing to Uzbek folk songs. In 1919 she joined the mobile theater troupe of the Turkestan Front led by Hamza Niyazi.[4]

Career

In 1921 she joined the Tashkent Russian opera and ballet theater named after Yakov Sverdlov, after which she joined the Tashkent Ballet troupe in 1922. In 1924 she graduated from the Central Technical School of Theater Arts in Moscow.[5]

Khanum's dancing had a profound effect on American writer Langston Hughes, who wrote a 1934 article, "Tamara Khanum: Soviet Asia's Greatest Dancer," which praised Khanum for her performances and for breaking cultural taboos by appearing on stage.[1]

Legacy

The house museum of Tamara Khanum was created in 1994.[6]

See also

References
  1. Baldwin, Kate A. (2002), Beyond the Color Line and the Iron Curtain: Reading Encounters Between Black and Red, 1922-1963, Duke University Press, p. 93, ISBN 0-8223-2990-5
  2. ""Муза Востока" Тамара Ханум и ее корейские песни". koryo-saram.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  3. Uzbek Dance and Culture Society: About the Dance Archived 2007-10-09 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Memorial house museum of Tamara Khanum. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
  5. "Tamaraxonim" OʻzME. T-harfi Birinchi jild. Toshkent, 2000-yil
  6. Memorial House Museum of Tamara Khanum. Life history of the famous Uzbek artist and her dress collection


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