ALL THIRTY-TWO FOUETTES

The range of roles she played is unusually large: ballets of all Azerbaijani authors - Malikov, Hacibayov, Qarayev, Badalbayli, Abbasov; all of Tchaikov-sky's ballets, Adam's Giselle, works of Krein and Asafyev. On 29 January, the great Azerbaijani Soviet ballet dancer, choreographer and talented teacher Leyla Vakilova, who died in February 1999, would have turned 87.

Memory

"For her talent and technicality of performance, she can be compared with Maya Plisetskaya and Galina Ulanova - outstanding ballet dancers who danced at the Bolshoi Theatre," her husband, choreographer, singer and director Huseyn Aliyev said in an interview with R+. "The outstanding feature of her work was that in her performance, she combined brilliant ballet techniques, which were beyond the power of any ballerina in that period, and high artistic skills in playing her roles."

Huseyn Aliyev recalls that the Soviet ballet school was the best in the world and had the highest quality standards. And Leyla Vakilova managed to meet these standards. She brilliantly played roles that were difficult from a technical point of view and from the perspective of artistic craftsmanship.

Her graduation work at the Baku Choreographic School, from which Leyla Vakilova graduated in 1943, was the Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, which was quite a difficult choice. Her husband says that Leyla performed all thirty-two fouettes at a high level. According to Huseyn Aliyev, one of the fans of the ballerina was her relative, famous Azerbaijani poet Samad Vurgun (Vakilov). She maintained quite a close relationship with him all her life. Samad Vurgun was at her graduation performance to give Leyla moral support in the performance of a rather complex role, and when the performance ended and it became clear that the exam was successful, Samad approached her and said with a smile: "Well, there will be a ballerina in our family too!"

During the Great Patriotic War, Leyla Vakilova travelled to districts and performed at houses of culture in hospitals where the wounded were kept. "In general, she was a great patriot of her country," says Huseyn Aliyev. "Even in the difficult years of perestroika and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when we really needed money and she was invited to teach abroad many times, she did not go anywhere and taught here in the Ballet School till the end of her life." And that deserves great respect - this outstanding woman stood the test of difficult years, dedicating them to ballet in her home country. "She was one of the best teachers," her husband recalls. "Leyla was able to recognize the talent and work with it, and the best proof of this is that some of her students later danced at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow."

Roles

Her teacher was Qamar Almaszada, a well-known ballerina at the time. It was with great love and care that she treated the talent of her student, not just handing over her experience to her, but also trying to foster unique individuality in Vakilova. The Swan Lake was the first serious work of Vakilova, a kind of test of strength. In this ballet, she played both of the main female roles - Odette, the White Swan, and Odile, the Black Swan. Both roles were equally complex and at the same time, had completely different expression. Odette is a slow grace and quiet beauty, Odile is rapid motions and real flights on stage. Few ballerinas have ever come up with the idea to play both of these roles at once.

In the early 1960's, specifically for her student Leyla, Qamar Almaszada, in collaboration with Afrasiab Badalbayli, wrote a libretto to Asraf Abbasov's music. The ballet was based on Suleyman Sani Axundov's novel "Gipsy Girl" ("Qaraca Qiz"). It premiered in 1965.

Then there were Giselle in Adam's ballet, Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, Zarema in Asafyev's Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Aisha in Qara Qarayev's Seven Beauties, Sirin in Arif Malikov's Legend of Love, and Gulsan in Hacibayov's work with the same title. Leyla Vakilova's favourite role was that of Gulyanag in Afrasiab Badalbayli's ballet The Maiden's Tower. This role made it possible to show not only ballet, but also dramatic talent.

"Leyla's gift was in great demand both in Azerbaijan and throughout the Soviet Union," says her husband. "Ballet was considered a matter of national importance in the country at the time, so only the best ballerinas were allowed on foreign tours, and Leyla was among them." Huseyn Aliyev says that Vakilova was the first Azerbaijani ballerina to go abroad. With the national ensemble, of which she was the manager, Leyla Vakilova visited Poland, Syria, Czechoslovakia, India, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Italy, as well as other countries.

Her spouse says that perhaps, the main merit of Leyla Vakilova was that she managed to create a national ballet school. "Real great art cannot be isolated, but at the same time, it is very important to have national ballet and give ballet special characteristic features," Huseyn Aliyev said. "Leyla succeeded in this. Thanks to her, the world got a whole galaxy of masters of the Azerbaijani ballet school."

Leyla Vakilova's husband, remembering his late wife, complains only about one thing: "Leyla was an outstanding ballerina and a people's artist of the USSR, and on the house in which she lived, there is still no memorial plaque. I tried to solve this problem, but alas, to no avail."