Women’s Dance Traditions of Uzbekistan: Legacy of the Silk Road

The book, written by Dr Laurel Victoria Gray, is published by Bloomsbury Academic Press in London and was officially released on April 18th. Previous presentations have been hosted by the Russian East European Eurasian Centre at the University of Illinois, the University of Wyoming, and the Arts Club of Washington DC. 

Women’s Dance Traditions of Uzbekistan: Legacy of the Silk Road has been heralded as “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.”

The lead Bloomsbury editor for this book is Anna Brewer: Anna.Brewer@bloomsbury.com.

As the first American to be invited to study traditional dance in Uzbekistan, Dr Gray shares her considerable experience and insight gathered over 14 trips over several decades, beginning in the Soviet era and continuing into present-day independence. In 1995, she founded the Silk Road Dance Company which performs many well-known Uzbek choreographies from the celebrated Bakhor Ensemble, as well as folkloric dances from various regions, sharing these dances with audiences in the United States, Canada, Singapore, Qatar, and the UK.

About the speaker

Scholar and choreographer, Laurel Victoria Gray teaches Global Dance History at George Washington University. Recent publications include Women’s Dance Traditions of Uzbekistan: Legacy of the Silk Road (Bloomsbury 2024); “Silk Road: Commerce, Conquest, and College” in Milestones of Dance History (Routledge 2022); “Tamara Khanum and Mukarram Turgunbaeva: Pioneers of Uzbek Stage Dance” in the Anthology of Central Asian Women (forthcoming). Honors include Uzbekistan’s Xalqlar Do’stligi Medal (2021), Fulbright’s International Dance Scholar Lecture (2009), and the Kennedy Center’s Local Dance Commissioning Project award (2003).  

In 1995, she founded the  award-winning Silk Road Dance Company which has performed in Uzbekistan, Qatar, Singapore, London, and Toronto, and at the first White House Nowruz celebration. Gray studied history at Occidental College (B.A.), the University of Waterloo (M.A), and the University of Washington (Doctoral Candidate) and, in 2009, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Uzbekistan State Institute of Art and Culture.

Chair: Professor Rachel Harris (SOAS)

Registration

This event free and open to the public. If you would like to attend, please register using the link above.

• Organisers: SOAS Centre for Contemporary Central Asia and Caucasus in collaboration with the British-Uzbek Society and Orzu Arts Theatre
• Contact: maqam@soas.ac.uk

Header image credit: Samarkand, Uzbekistan by AXP Photography via Unsplash