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            Uzbek Dance and Culture Society


In Loving Memory of Our Ustoz
Kizlarkhon Dusmukhamedova
People's Artist of Uzbekistan

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"Legacy of the Silk Road" 
February 26, 2023
Silk Road Dance Company
Intersections Arts Festival
PHOTOS by Michele Egan

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The Goddess Anahita, The Lady of Waters
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Post-concert discussion with Artistic Director Laurel Victoria Gray and
Doug Yeuell, Executive Director of the Atlas Performing Arts Center.
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NEW BOOK!
Women's Dance Traditions
​of Uzbekistan:
Legacy of the Silk Road

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 CLICK HERE TO PRE ORDER
The first comprehensive work in English on the three major regional styles of Uzbek women's dance –Ferghana, Khiva and Bukhara – and their broader Silk Road cultural connections, from folklore roots
to contemporary stage dance.

The book surveys the remarkable development from the earliest manifestations in ancient civilizations to a sequestered existence under  Islam; from patronage under Soviet power to a place of pride for Uzbek nationhood.

It considers the role that immigration had to play on the development of the dances; how women boldly challenged societal gender roles to perform in public; how both material culture and the natural world manifest in the dance; and it illuminates the innovations of pioneering choreographers who drew from Central Asian folk traditions, gestures and aesthetics – not Russian ballet – to first shape modern Uzbek stage dance.

Written by the first American dancer invited to study in Uzbekistan, this book offers insight into the once-hidden world of Uzbek women's dance.

GWU STUDENTS AT UZBEK EMBASSY

Students from Professor Gray's "Dance Cultures of the Silk Road" experience Uzbek traditions at the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington DC, assisting in a lecture for VIP guests.

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EMBASSY OF UZBEKISTAN 2022


MILESTONES OF DANCE HISTORY

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Book features chapter on Silk Road dance
​cultures by Laurel Victoria Gray
.
   
"... ten chosen milestones move chronologically from the earliest indigenous rituals and the dance crazes of Eastern trade routes, to the social justice performance and evolving online platforms of modern times."



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Published on Voices of Central Asia!
Uzbek Dance Goes Virtual with the
17th Central Asian Dance Camp

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By Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray for MOZAIKA
In 2020 BC (Before Coronavirus), the 17th Central Asian Dance Camp (CADC) planned to bring a master instructor from Tashkent to the Uzbek Embassy in Washington, DC, to train American dancers. Last year’s camp, also held at the embassy, hosted People’s Artist of Uzbekistan, Kizlarhon Dusmukhamedova, honoring her with an award recognizing her 40 years of sharing Uzbek dance culture with Americans. Twenty participants from several states attended morning and afternoon dance classes and as well as lectures on Uzbek dance history and culture. During meals of Uzbek cuisine prepared by the embassy chef, dancers got acquainted with each other. An evening dance concert in the embassy provided camp participants and invited guests to experience in Uzbek dance performances in traditional costumes.
                    CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

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Your ticket to "Treasures of the Silk Road"

Any donor to Silk Road Dance Company for the #GivingTuesday campaign will receive a private link to this only concert of
Uzbek, Uyghur, Tajik, Azeri, Persian, Arab, and Indian dance.

DONATE AT THIS LINK

LECTURE by Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray
"Decolonizing Uzbek Dance:
Honoring the Roots of Gesture"

August 19,2020 @ 7:00pm EST

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This lecture responds to assertions that contemporary Uzbek stage dance is an artificial Soviet-era invention and examines pre-revolutionary dance traditions among the Central Asian women. Gray proposes a more nuanced understanding of the origins of the gestural heritage of Uzbek dance that reflects traditional life ways, making it a vital element of cultural expression.

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By Alana Hayes
Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year! And, you’re all invited to the party! Welcome! Please, come in. Find a chair. Yes, this is the party. Take a seat. Grab a kebab. There will be a fundraising auction at the end of this event. I’m kidding, there won’t be an auction. This is the party though! Hosted by, yours truly, The Haifa Girls. If you would like to help support Silk Road Dance Company and their efforts for the preservation of women’s culture along the Silk Road, then you can right here.

Silk Road Dance Company is based out of the DMV (DC metro area). The company was founded in 1995 by Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray, who also happens to be a Professor of World Dance at George Washington University. I met Laurel while I was still in college (I went to UMBC) through a friend who danced in her company and I immediately fell in love with Silk Road. I loved their mission, I loved that it was a cultural organization, I loved the dances, the clothing, and Laurel herself. She’s just such a knowledgeable person and she’s so passionate about what she does that you can’t help but fall in love with all of it too.

      CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE


The Golden Road to Samarkand

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February 22, 2020 @ 2:15 pm  Tickets $25
Atlas Performing Arts Center
1333 H Street NE
Washington DC 20002
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

News on 16th Central Asian Dance Camp!

Press coverage on the CADC held on August 9 -11, 2019 in Washington, DC, at the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan
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Book Donations Sought for Uzbek Dance Academy!

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Dear Metro DC  Area Dance Colleagues! Uzbekistan's Academy of Dance seeks books about all kinds of dance, in all languages. If you live in the Metro DC area and would like to donate to their library, please contact us at silkroaddance@aol.com to coordinate donation delivery in DC. We will arrange delivery to Uzbekistan. #UzbekDanceBookDrive

Dance Journey Along the Silk Road Concert

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Photo Credit:  Jeff Malet
Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray has little down time. “In the past 10 days,” said the founder and artistic director of the Silk Road Dance Company [SRDC], “we had a performance at an Afghan wedding, another at the Embassy of Uzbekistan. I presented an academic paper at the annual conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society. I gave my GWU Global Dance History students their midterm — and graded and returned it. Then, I started work on a new choreography commission from the local Persian community.

The 24-year-old SRDC presents traditional and contemporary women’s dances from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and the Caucasus. Its goal, said Gray, is to “offer a unique glimpse of little-known cultures, especially the Islamic world.”
The ensemble — which has performed at the White House and the Kennedy Center as well as at events for embassies and cultural organizations in the Iranian, Turkish, Arab and Central Asian communities — will bring “Dance Journey Along the Silk Road” to the Takoma Park Community Center on the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 2.
“We are happy to return to this venue for the fourth time,” said Gray, adding that more than a dozen dancers will perform a program of “dances chosen to feature some of our newest choreographies as well as some very special but seldom-performed treasures.”

Among the company’s repertoire of 200 dances from the ancient civilizations of the Silk Road she chose for the Takoma Park performance are “Turkmen, Uzbek (group and solo), Uyghur by guest dancer Irfan Otkur, Azerbaijani, Tajik from Pamir region, Kurdish, Afghan and a Zoroastrian-inspired piece.”

A native of Spokane, Washington, Gray has studied dance continuously since age 6. She has earned multiple academic degrees, including a doctorate in history. Since relocating to the D.C. area in 1995, the founder of the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society has taught at George Washington University, Joy of Motion Dance Center, Joe’s Movement Emporium and through Holy Cross Senior Source.

To support her historical research, teaching and choreography, Gray has traveled extensively. Her journeys to five continents – among them, 14 visits to Uzbekistan — also enabled her “to amass an immense and stunningly beautiful collection of antique [dance] costumes.”
During its two-plus decades, SRDC has evolved. Noting a “shift in the ethnicity of the dancers. Iranian born and Iranian-American dancers, along with Russians and Central Asians, frequently ‘outnumber’ local Americans,” Gray concluded, “This helps deepen the cultural connection and knowledge.”

Gray is disappointed in what she considers an “odd sort of relationship with the so-called ‘mainstream’ dance community that focuses on our costumes, but not our dances.” She attributes it to a cultural disconnect, a lack of understanding that “Central Asian, Turkic, Arab and Persian dances have a different aesthetic. They are usually improvisational in origin and require a deep connection to music and poetic lyrics. Movements are subtle and delicate. The face dances as well. The stage is used less because the dance is more internal.”

“Dance is more than just movement,” Gray added. “It is the literally embodiment of culture. There are subtleties of holding the body, even in greeting each other, that are embedded in dance movements.”

With SRDC, Gray strives to share the heritage of the “often-overlooked, rich and varied dance legacy of the 50 Muslim-majority nations,” she said. “The costumes are part of the dance, helping shape the movements. We hope for a more nuanced understanding and appreciation for these genres.”

Next year, the company’s 25th anniversary, means more items for Gray’s lengthy to-do list. “We have exciting programs planned.” Although details are not yet ready to release, she “can say [that]‘shortly before the 2020 presidential election … we will premiere a new concert work, ‘Visions From the Book of Omens,’ that draws on the Safavid Persian and Ottoman Turkish tradition of the Falciyar (fortune teller) who used bibliomancy to predict the future.”

Uzbekistan Heritage Night Dance Concert

The beauty and grace of traditional Central Asian dance came to the stage with a performance by the award- winning Silk Road Dance Company. The concert celebrated traditional women’s dances of Uzbekistan, providing a glimpse into a culture unfamiliar to most Americans. Post concert photo with Fairfax County MC, Lassine Doumbia.
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The Golden Road to Samarkand!
Saturday May 11, 2019  

THE GOLDEN ROAD TO SAMARKAND concert, presented on May 11, 2019, was a timeless journey in dance to the heart of Central Asia and a fabled city at the crossroads of many cultures. Perfr4omances by Silk Road Dance Company and guest artists Gulder Dance, Irafan Otkur, and Parnika Murthy were shared in Uzbek press. The Embassy of Uzbekistan generously provided authentic Uzbek plov for all who attended the evening performance.  A buffet of Silk Road cuisine from Marco & Polo Restauran was available before the afternoon matinee concert.

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A timeless journey in dance to the heart of Central Asia and a fabled city at the crossroads of many cultures. Directed by Laurel Victoria Gray and featuring Silk Road Dance Company with special guest artists.

DC Turkish Festival
Sunday September 29, 2019  Performance time TBD

This popular annual festival features dance and culture from the Turkic World, including Central Asia. It is held on Pennsylvania Avenue between 12th and 14th Streets NW, in front of Freedom Plaza and two blocks from the White House. Parking is available on side streets in the area. Metro use encouraged.
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Past Events

Nowruz Concert at Yale University
Saturday April 21, 2018

Performances of Persian and Central Asian music and dance by Silk Road Dance Company and Gairatjan Rozi, followed by a reception with Persian cuisine.

Textile Museum Family Day
Explore the World of Central Asia
April 14, 2018

Family Day: Explore the World of Central Asia
The George Washington University Museum and Textile Museum
Saturday, April 14 ∙ 11:00 am ∙ FREE!

Featuring the Silk Road Dance Company
Central Asia was at the juncture of many trading routes along the Silk Road. This area produced beautiful products like textiles, which were easy to transport. Join us for a free family day celebrating the art and cultures of Central Asia. Enjoy performances of Uzbek dance by the Silk Road Dance Company, try hands-on art activities, and explore the exhibition Binding the Clouds: The Art of Central Asian Ikat. Free, no reservations required.

4th Biennial Silk Road Dance Festival
Wedding in Bukhara
Saturday February 17, 2018  7pm

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News from the
Uzbek Dance
and Culture Society
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May 14, 2016 -
​A capacity crowd filled the Takoma Auditorium for the
"Dance Treasures of Uzbekistan" concert, part of the We Are Takoma series. In addition to beautiful dances presented by Silk Road Dance Company in traditional costumes, audiences members enjoyed a stunning film about the historic cities of Uzbekistan. After the concert, the Embassy of Uzbekistan hosted a reception featuring Uzbek cuisine.


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  • August 5, 2014.      The Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Washington, DC, presented Silk Road Dance Company in an all-Uzbek concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.    
    VIEW DANCE CONCERT   AT THIS LINK





  • February 19, 2015. An Edwardian Evening Along the Silk Road was presented at the Arts Club of Washington, DC. The concert invited guests to travel back in time to hear the adventures of Swedish explorer Sven Hedin - "the last great explorer" - who mapped vast expanses of the Silk Road. His riveting accounts of explorations from 1885 to 1908, were illustrated by traditional dances places he visited, including Bukhara and Samarkand. Special guest artists, Tabla for Two, provided mesmerizing Afghan music and set the mood for an enchanted evening.                                                                                 

  • September 28, 2014. The traditional Uzbek folklore dances and costumes were presented by Silk Road Dance Company at the 12th annual Washington, DC, Turkish Festival. Highlights included a Bukharan Mavrigi dance performed in antique costumes



Government of Uzbekistan Awards
Laurel Victoria Gray
the 'Xalqlar Dosligi" Medal

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From Uzbek Ambassador Javlon Vakhabov:

"A wonderful evening The Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the U.S. and Canada hosted yesterday [October 28, 2021] launching the 18th Central Asian Dance Camp. It was my great honor to present the award “Friendship Among The Peoples” to Laurel Victoria Gray (Silk Road Dance Company) for her invaluable contribution to enhancing people-to-people ties and promoting #Uzbekistan culture in the U.S.

Laurel Khanum has not only dedicated her life mastering Uzbek dance in the U.S. and far beyond, but also remains most humble, professional, and passionate about what she is doing. And this lady is an internationally recognized scholar, choreographer, performer, costume designer, pioneer of Uzbek dance in America. I am inspired by her noble personality that always searches for new discoveries.

Laurel Khanum has mastered dances from Silk Road cultures and beyond. She combines her degrees in history with decades of field research and teaches dance at The George Washington University. Dr. Gray founded the award-winning Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC) in 1995, bringing the lovers of our culture together at the Central Asian Dance Camp annually, showing the beauty during many events across the U.S. and far beyond.

Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray, in one word, is our treasure in the U.S. Thank you for everything you have been doing over the years. I hope to continue our long-lasting friendship."

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Remembering Tamara Khanum
Uzbekistan's Heroine of Dance

by Laurel Victoria Gray

PREFACE:
In 1984, as a member of an official delegation visiting Seattle’s sister-city, Tashkent, I received a rare invitation to the home of People’s Artist of the USSR, Tamara Khanum, the first woman in Uzbekistan to dance in public. The excerpts below come from my article, "Tamara Khanum: Uzbekistan's Heroine of Dance," which originally appeared in a 1985 issue of Arabesque Magazine and is reprinted here with their permission.
 
All great dancers sacrifice for their art, but very few risk their lives in this endeavor. Tamara Artemyevna Petrosian[1] placed her life in jeopardy merely by dancing, for the arena she chose was a public one in a land where women courted death for daring to appear unveiled. In her dedication to her art, Tamara became a revolutionary heroine.

Born in the Ferghana region in 1906, Tamara Khanum absorbed the culture and traditions of the Uzbek people although her lineage was Armenian. As a child in pre-revolutionary Turkestan, she grew up in a society where women led circumscribed lives, venturing into public only when concealed in the paranjah.[2] “Women were never allowed to speak with strangers, much less sing or dance in front of them.” [3] Women confined their dancing to the ich-kari, the women’s quarters, and danced for each other.

During the 1920s, when the Bolsheviks consolidated their power, social reforms - including the emancipation of women - accompanied their political and economic changes. In 1927, women gathered in Samarkand’s Registan Square to burn their veils. Many earned death for their boldness.

Tamara Khanum opened a new era for Uzbek arts. Her bravery became a political act when she brought ancient dances out into the brilliant light of the 20th century; public appearances were fraught with genuine danger. She became the target of the Basmachi: traditionalist, anti-communist bands of partisans which challenged Soviet authority. “The Basmachi tried many times to kill me,” recalled Tamara Khanum, “but I escaped. The people helped me; they hid me.” Not all were so lucky. She pointed to an old photograph of a delicate young woman.[4] “She was my student,” Tamara Khanum explained, “but she was killed.” Her grief was still fresh.

The times required that an artist also be a fighter.[5] Those early years passed without glamour or ease. “I danced anywhere,” Tamara Khanum reminisced, “on rooftops, in the streets, in the villages. I remember walking with the baby at my breast, another child at my side, holding my hand, and on my back, a bundle filled with my costumes. Like this I walked to the villages and danced, while in the audience sat women still wearing the paranjah.”

She took her art to Paris where, in 1924, she performed at the World Exhibition of Decorative Arts wearing the “voluminous, chaste garments and heavy jewelry of Central Asian women.”[6] Her manner and dress contrasted vividly with the pseudo-oriental “unclothed ‘eastern’ dancers plying their trade in the Paris Music halls.”[7] Tamara's dance was genuinely feminine, and perhaps even provocative in its very subtlety, but never vulgar. Through her, the West witnessed an ancient art nurtured by generations of women in the protected seclusion of the ich-kari.

With energy and purpose, Tamara Khanum had changed the nature of Uzbek dance. The old classical pieces tended to be solemn, the movements as confined as the lives of the women who danced them.[8] Tamara Khanum, and other dancers who followed her lead, injected a vibrant new spirit into traditional material.[9] Movements now cover more space, and the body is used to a greater degree.

Tamara Khanum’s valor found another challenge during World War II. Through her performances of dance and music she kept up the morale of a threatened nation and raised enough money to buy a tank to send against the Nazis. She was an officer in the Soviet army. “I wore a uniform, and I carried a pistol,” Tamara Khanum said proudly. “But I never shot anyone!” she exclaimed. “I did my shooting with songs and dances.”

I found myself standing on the threshold of her home accompanied by Uzbekistan’s prima ballerina, Bernara Karieva, whose patient diplomacy had secured this audience. Like a gracious queen, Tamara Khanum welcomed us into her home, looking nothing less than glamorous in a pink and gold caftan. She seized me firmly by the shoulders and propelled me about the room while identifying the members of her family whose pictures graced the walls; all were remarkable for their physical beauty and their accomplishments in various branches of the arts. Here, too, hung photographs of Tamara herself: at age 30, 40, and at 50, in Paris, and in London.

She led me into another, larger room. We stood in the midst of Tamara Khanum’s private museum. Costumes of countless nationalities crowded the racks along the wall, while others hung from coat stands or were draped across dress forms, all silent partners to a dancing career which spanned more than half a century, surviving revolution and world war.

Tamara Khanum introduced her costumes as if they were personal friends.  The collection included costumes fashioned from the famed textiles which earned the great Silk Road its illustrious name. An iridescent pink and gold brocade khalat shimmered next to an opulent Bukhara coat of wine velvet encrusted with intricately embroidered arabesques wrought from gold by patient hands. Dresses of riotous khan atlas clamored for attention, exploding with dizzying combinations of color and pattern.
In a silent corner stood a dress form covered by an austere black garment. “My paranja, “explained Tamara Khanum, indicating a grim shroud for the living, a mute specter of Uzbekistan's past.

Tamara Khanum steered me toward a glass case filled with antique Turkic jewelry. Among the treasures, gleamed a delicate jeweled crown of the kind which graced the dancers in old miniatures.

With a regal gesture, Tamara Khanum beckoned me to a table prepared according to the dictates of Central Asian hospitality.
“You are my first American guest,”[10] she announced, and then left the room to reappear with steaming dishes prepared with her own hands. Other guests arrive filling the rooms with more laughter and artistic talk. Tamara Khanum’s generosity make her home an oasis for the leading lights of Tashkent's cultural circles. “It is always like this here,” confided Bernara Karieva, glowing with an obvious admiration.

The hours fled unnoticed. I was jolted back to awareness when I was told my flight to Samarkand would soon leave. I begged to stay and continue my dance lessons but Tamara Khanum was emphatic. “You must see Samarkand. You must see old Uzbekistan and understand us.” Her firm insistence melted my resolve. If Tamara Khanum said I should go to Samarkand, I would go to Samarkand. She kissed me and sent me off, my arms filled with gifts and mementos.

That evening, a cool desert wind swept through the streets of Samarkand, echoing the ghostly hoof beats of conquering hordes. So many struggles, so much strife had passed here. But some of the battles have been worth fighting, and Tamara Khanum was one of his Uzbekistan's most valiant heroines.

 ENDNOTES
[1] The paranjah is an opaque, enveloping cloak that covers a woman from the top of her head to her ankles and is worn over the chuchvah, a woven horsehair panel that completely hides the face and upper torso.
[2] Mary Grace Swift, The Art of the Dance in the U.S.S.R. (Notre Dame, Indiana; University of Notre Dame Press, 1968). p. 180
[3]  Nurkhon Yuldasheva
[4] Tamara Khanum cited by O.I. Shirokaya, Tamara Khonim. (Tashkent, Gafur Gulam Literature and Art Publishing House, 1973),    unnumbered pages.
[5] Swift, p. 181.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Swift, on p. 242, citing Nikolai Elizov, “The Uzbek Dance,” Trud, No. 17, (September 1, 1955), p. 31.
[8] R. Karimova, Tantsy ansamblya Bakhor, (Tashkent, 1979), p. 7.
[9] While I was probably the first American guest in this particular home, I was not the first American guest to be hosted by Tamara Khanum. Langston Hughes beat me by several decades.
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Silk Road Dance Company
Kicks Off Silver Anniversary at
Intersections Festival

 February 18, 2020 by Leslie Holleran

What better way to launch a dance company’s 25th year than with a sumptuous performance? And so, Silk Road Dance Company will perform The Golden Road to Samarkand at Atlas Performing Arts Center’s Intersections Festival in Washington, D.C., on February 22.
 CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE
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Discover Uzbek Dance!

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Founded in 1985, by Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society builds bridges of understanding between East and West through the preservation and promulgation of traditional Central Asian arts.

Activities include cultural exchange programs, concert tours, lectures, dance demonstrations, master classes with leading Uzbek artists, and other events. 

The Uzbek Dance and Culture Society (UDCS) organized the  U.S. tours for the "Artists of Uzbekistan" (1989) and the "Uzbekistan Folklore Ensemble" (1990), as well as assisting with the 2001 Kennedy Center concert by Tashkent's Ensemble Munojot.    

In 1988, at the invitation of Uzbekistan's Union of Theatrical Workers, the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society traveled to Uzbekistan and Georgia. The historic 1989 delegation, with 30 participants, returned to Uzbekistan to work closely with artists from Tashkent's professional theatres. 
 
Since 1995, the Central Asian Dance Camp has provided opportunities for Americans to study traditional Uzbek, Tajik,  Uighur, Afghan and Persian dance with master instructors. The first camps took place in Santa Fe, New Mexico, then relocated to Washington, DC, where they have been held at various locations, including the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan. (See photos below from 2000 and 2019.)







Central Asian Dance Camp venues are usually spacious dance studios with mirrors. Meals prepared by professional chefs are often provided for the partipants. A Silk Road Bazaar offers dance costumes, music, and other hard-to-find items for sale.
 
The Uzbek Dance and Culture Society has hosted leading Uzbek artists including Qizlarhon Dusmuhamedova, Qadir Muminov, Viktoria "Viloyat" Akilova, Shakir Ahmedov, Habibulla Rasulov,  as well as the Uzbekistan Dance Ensemble.



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American Dance Group presents Uzbek Dance
​in Washington DC

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