The Higher School of National Dance and Choreography trains not just artists. The project ‘The founders of the dance performing arts of Uzbekistan’ has demonstrated that students can easily cope with academic work.
The idea proposed by the teacher of the department of social and humanitarian sciences, associate professor Mukaddas Rizayeva, got supported by graduate students. The project serves more than one purpose. Firstly, it brings together the school and college students, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. Secondly, the project participants acquire a great experience of working with scientific material. But most importantly, to the end of the project, which is designed for two years, a book will be published. It will include all the reports prepared by the students.
The first phase of the project has already been implemented. It was dedicated to the founders of the national dance. Students of undergraduate and graduate courses prepared authoring reports. They approached to this task with the utmost seriousness. In order to fully present the life and work of a certain master, each reporter learned a tremendous amount of literature, talked to those who were familiar with his/her report hero. School and college students were responsible for the presentation of dancing numbers of each outstanding artist. And graduate students dealt with the organizational issues. For example, they provided rare footage of performances from the chronicle of a particular artist.
“I am glad that the students began to understand that within the walls of our school they should devote themselves not only to dance, but science as well. Preparing reports, they were looking for information and creative approach to each proposal, because we required analysis. They should be able to use not only ready material, but also to show their creative approach,” Mukaddas Rizayeva says.
“We used to use the Internet, which is full of inaccuracies in dates and names. It is difficult to find information about cultural figures who worked in the early 20th century. By the end of the project the next generation of school students will have a book with all the reliable information on the leading dancers, choreographers, musicians,” says one of the project managers, graduate student Yelena Kari-Yakubova. “We render all-round help so that students can approach to those who witnessed the life and work of a particular artist.”
The next phase of the project will be devoted to the first professional artists of Uzbek ballet. In two years, the project participants will collect information on the leading artists from the early 20th century to the present day. The project will be completed by the event dedicated to the Uzbek dance performing art and its modern state.
The organizers plan to attract not only students of the higher school. A large number of guests will be invited for each concert-conference so that as many people as possible have got the opportunity to get closer to the dancing art of the country.