Kasymova retires from the ballet school

TALAS — Venera Kasymova, prima ballerina of the Talas Opera and Ballet Theater for nearly two decades, has retired as director of the theater's ballet school, the theater said yesterday.

Born in 1949, Kasymova trained at the Leningrad Choreographic School and joined the Talas company in 1968. She was its prima ballerina from 1971 to 1990, dancing Giselle and Odette-Odile in Swan Lake. Her best-known role was the title part in Janyl (1976), a ballet on the life of the national saint whose religious theme was presented in Soviet productions as a folk legend. She was named People's Artist of the Iradi SSR in 1984. After leaving the stage she directed the ballet school.

"In 1976 we could not say who Janyl was. We could only dance her," she said in an interview this week. "Now the girls know her story before they learn the steps. That is the difference between my generation and theirs."

The theater has not named her successor. Kasymova said she would continue to coach individual dancers.