Altynai Asylmuratova

Altynai Abduahimovna Asylmuratova (Russian: Алтынай Абдуахимовна Асылмуратова; born 1 January 1961) is a former Kazakhstani-Russian prima ballerina with the Kirov Ballet/Mariinsky Theatre and a guest artist all over the world.

Asylmuratova was born in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan into a family of dancers. The family relocated to St Petersburg so Asylmuratova could attend the Vaganova Choreographic Institute. After graduation from the class of Inna Zubkovskaya, she joined the Kirov Ballet in 1978. After four years in the corps de ballet, she was promoted to principal dancer in 1982.

Asylmuratova became if anything more popular in Western theaters than her "home" theater due to her frequent guest appearances abroad, including Roland Petit's company. She was much admired both for her looks and the beauty of her dancing. Her repertoire included all the classical ballet rôles in Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Don Quixote, and La Bayadère, Mikhail Fokine pieces such as The Firebird and Les Sylphides, as well as modern classics like Romeo and Juliet, works by choreographer George Balanchine and Roland Petit. She is married to fellow Mariinsky dancer Konstantin Zaklinsky and together they have a daughter, Anastasia Zaklinskaya (born 1993), who is now a dancer in the Mariinsky Ballet. Her most frequent ballet partner was Farouk Ruzimatov.

Videos of her dancing in Le Corsaire, La Bayadère [1], Les Sylphides, and The Sleeping Beauty are available. In addition, Asylmuratova was the subject of a 1982 documentary Backstage at the Kirov which followed her as she prepared to dance the lead in Swan Lake.

In 2000 she was appointed artistic director of the Vaganova Choreographic Institute. She retired from dancing soon afterwards, to concentrate all her energy on the Vaganova Academy.