Ramazan Bapov

Born to a simple working family around Almaty-1 station on August 16, 1947, Ramazan graduated with honors from Moscow State Academy of Choreography at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1966.^[2]

While still a student, Ramazan Bapov was awarded prizes of USSR-wide Ballet Artist Competition in Moscow and 2 international competitions in Varna.^[3]

Upon his return to Alma-Ata in 1967, Bapov became a soloist at The Kazakh Opera and Ballet Theater after Abay.^[4] He was invited to Moscow to train undr Alexander Rudenko, Aleksey Varlamov and Asaf Messerer. Bapov performed around the world as a member of a Moscow-founded ballet company composed of international competition winners. Thus he worked for 2 institutions, polishing his skills at the Bolshoi and practicing at Abay Opera House.^[5] He toured a lot in Denmark, Sweden and Finland, Syria and Jordan, India and Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore, among other countries.^[6]

Ramazan Bapov was awarded the distinction of the People's Artist of the USSR in 1979, the only Kazakhstani dancer to receive such a lofty title.^[7] As he finished to perform on stage, Bapov obtained a degree in Ballet Staging from Rimsky-Korsakov Leningrad Conservatory in 1986 and two years later joined State Opera and Ballet in Istanbul (Turkey),^[8] where he taught a male ballet class.^[9] In 1994, when Bapov took his Turkish students to an international competition in Varna, Bulgaria, he met his old friend Pavel Rotaru, a Romanian ballet dancer, who invited him to the USA. Ramazan spent 13 years in Atlanta State of Georgia, running his own ballet school for 140 students,^[10] some of whom took first prizes in US national competitions.

Following President Nazarbayev’s invitation in 2007, Bapov returned to Kazakhstan and headed the ballet division of Abay Opera House.^[11] In his twilight years Ramazan Bapov worked as a choreography advisor and professor at Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts.^[12] Anna Tsoi, Damir Urazymbetov, Oryngul Nurzhankyzy and others were among his students. Ramazan spoke Russian, Turkish, English and French.^[13] He died on March 11, 2014, and was buried in the Kensai Cemetery in Almaty.^[14]

• Frondoso — Laurencia A. Krein
• Young Man — Aliya by Mansur Sagatov
• Hooligan — The Lady and the Hooligan by D. Shostakovich
• Vaslav — The Fountain of Bakhchisarai by B. Asafyev
• Solor — La Bayadère by L. Minkus
• Basil — Don Quixote by L. Minkus
• Albert — Giselle by A. Adam
• Kozy — Kozy Korpesh and Bojan Sulu by Y. Brusilovsky
• Siegfried — Swan Lake by P. Tchaikovsky
• Tayo — The Legend of the White Bird by G. Zhubanova
• Pulcinella — Pulcinella by Igor Stravinsky inspired by G. Pergolesi
• Romeo — Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev
• Spartacus — Spartacus by A. Khachaturian
• Désiré — The Sleeping Beauty by P. Tchaikovsky
• Ishpaka — Frescoes by Т. Mynbayev

• Ramazan Bapov’s wife Lyudmila Rudakova (1937), formerly a prima ballerina of Abay Opera House, now teaches at Almaty Choreographic School named after Alexander Seleznev and Abay Opera House . Honored Artist of the Kazakh SSR.^[15]
• His daughter Yulia Bapova (1969), is a pianist and correpetitor at Istanbul Opera Bale (Turkey).^[16][17]

• A monument to Ramazan Bapov by sculptors Eduard Kazaryan and Kairzhan Tokishev was unveiled in Kensai on August 5, 2015.^[18]
• A street in Almaty was named after Ramazan Bapov in 2022.^[19]
• On July 8, 2022, a plaque was put up on the wall of the house at Nazarbayev Avenue (formerly Furmanov Av.), 116 where Bapov lived between 1977 and 2014 to commemorate his 75th anniversary.^[20][11] Altai Beysenov’s plaque shows Bapov in his roles in Spartacus and Giselle.^[21]\