Azerbaijan choreograph
People's  artist of Azerbaijan (1959)

Amina Dilbazi was considered to be the queen of the national folk dance of Azerbaijan. Her outstanding professionalism was highly appraised by the fine art experts. Amina Dilbazi reached the acme of the art of dancing. She was ranked together with such stars of the soviet art of dance as Maya Plisetskaya and Mukarram Turgunbayeva. Her name was very popular in the world of dance. Amina Dilbazi successfully represented her people's art of dance  not only in Azerbaijan and in the Soviet Union but also in many countries of the world. She went down in the history of Azerbaijan's art as a researcher and restorer of the Azerbaijani national dances, author and stage director of many new dances.

Amina Dilbazi was born on December 26, 1919 in the Qazakh district of Azerbaijan. In 1924 the family moved to Baku where in 1926 she began to attend the Turkish school. A year later her mother transferred her to the Russian school. Wishing to provide her daughter with music education she brought  Amina to the renowned Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir bek Gadjibekov. She was enrolled to the department of pianoforte of the music school. She learned in the class of Mariya  Plisetskaya who was one of the most respected music teachers in Baku of that time.

Her first appearance on the stage was in 1935 with the performance of Uzeyir Gadjibekov's song  "The Kolkhoz vastness”. In January 1936 she was included into the dance group. Her first teacher was a famous ballet master of that time Ilya Arbatov. The first dance she performed on the stage was the Azerbaijanis' favorite folk dance “Terekeme”.  It was “Terekeme” that opened  to her a wonderful world of dance and made her famous as the best performer of Azerbaijani national dances. Till the end of her life she took special pleasure in performing  this dance.

At that time Amina Dilbazi faced a choice - either to dedicate herself to sport (gymnastics) or music. Though she entered the preparation department of the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute she felt she was not in her element. Amina Dilbazi left Institute and returned to the world of dance. Her performance in Moscow within the framework of the Azerbaijan cultural decade in 1938 marked her first great success as a dancer.

In 1939 her group was renamed as “Ensemble of singing and dancing of the Azerbaijan State Philharmony”. Amina Dilbazi was the soloist with the Philharmony and ensemble director (with intervals). The great popularity were such dances in her performance  as “Innabi”, “Terekeme”, “Mirzai” (Vagzaly), “Naz elame”.

When the war broke out she with a group of 80 people was on a tour in Yalta. All the men were immediately put under the military commissar's order and the women were sent to dig trenches. With great difficulty she managed to return to Baku where as was required by the war conditions Amina Dilbazi as a commander of the women's company twice a week did military training with her subordinates, practiced in shooting and dug anti-tank ditches.

Some time later there was organized the concert troupe which included  such popular singers  as Yaver Kalantarli, Shovket Alekperova, dancer Ali Abdullayev, Amina Dilbazi and others. The troupe was sent to South Azerbaijan where the soviet troops were quartered. For six months they performed before the soldiers and local population in Tabriz,Ardebil, Urmiya, Khoe and other populated places. On returning to Azerbaijan they performed a lot of dances during tours at the districts of the Republic.

 In 1942 she was invited to Tbilisi to the shooting of Michail Chiaureli's film “Georgiy Zaakadze” . The dance scene staged by her with the participation of 36 dancers  in the Shakh Abbas's palace looked irresistibly fascinating.

She found her family happiness during the war years when she married a talented composer Jovdet Hadjiev.

Right after the war  with the creation of  the State Circus  on the initiative of  the famous composers of that time Uzeyir Hadjibekov and Soltan Dadashev  Amina Dilbazi was appointed a chief ballet mistress and stage director of the ceremony “Azerbaijani wedding”  which was included in the circus repertoire. In 1946 she took part in the Prague International Youth Festival where she with Alibaba Abdullaev performed the dance “Naz elema” at the highest artistic level.  Those years Dilbazi’s repertoire consisted of such popular dances as “Terekeme”, “Innabi”, “Lale”, “Mirzai-Vagzaly” (a dance with glasses”), “Ay, Gezel”, “Yally”, “Dagly gezali”, “Lyric dance”. Soon she added the “Turaji” dance into her repertoire. The highest artistic level of this performance did not stay unnoticed. On the initiative of the renowned Azerbaijani conductor maestro Niyazi the dance was included in the repertoire of government concerts.

At the IV International Festival of Youth and Students which took place in 1957 Amina Dilbazi was awarded with the gold medal. That very year she made a two months' tour to China which left a very pleasing reminiscence for the rest of her life. The geography of her repertoire gradually expanded including Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Arabian, Uighur, Indian, Moldavian,Georgian, Tajik dances. Her unforgettable performance of “Innabi”,“Terekeme”, “Mirzai-Vagzaly”, “Turaji”, “Naz elema” have become true masterpieces of the art of dancing. In 1959 she headed the students' dancing group “Chinar” created in the Azerbaijan Medical Institute.

Amina Dilbazi died on April 30 2010 at the age of 91. The memorial service took place at The State Song Theater named after Rashid Behbudov. Amina Dilbazi was buried in the 1-st Alley of Honor of Azerbaijan Republic. Based on the Azerbaijan President's decree one of the streets in Qazakh town was named after her. In Baku there was installed a memorial tablet on the house where she lived ( Baku, Khagani str, house 19/13).