kazakhstan seeks to leap onto ballet world stage
Last Updated : GMT 05:17:37
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
Last Updated : GMT 05:17:37
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice

In a dramatic flourish, her body arching towards the sky

Kazakhstan seeks to leap onto ballet world stage

Emiratesvoice, emirates voice

Emiratesvoice, emirates voice Kazakhstan seeks to leap onto ballet world stage

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev
Astana - Arab Today

In the snowy foreground of a brand new steel and glass building in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, a dancer in national dress stands frozen in a dramatic flourish, her body arching towards the sky.

The cast-iron abstract sculpture stands at the entrance of the second major ballet theatre to have opened in the new capital in the last few years.

Together they point to the energy-rich country's ambition to stamp its own mark on an art form inherited from its Soviet past.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union 25 years ago, ballet has enjoyed mixed fortunes in the Muslim-majority Central Asian region's newly independent countries.

Much of Kazakhstan's multi-million-dollar ballet boom has been funded by the government, but private sponsors and international partners have also stepped in. 

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 76, famously announced in 2013 that "a country that builds factories is thinking years ahead... a country that builds theatres is thinking in terms of centuries."

At the Astana Ballet Theatre's opening last year, stars of its troupe wowed spectators in a production curated by Brazilian resident choreographer Ricardo Amarante.

"The artistic level here is very strong: they can do Kazakh national dance, classical ballet and contemporary," the neo-classical specialist, who has been working with the troupe for the last year, told AFP.

"The support from the government is there and now it is important local ballet keeps its mind open to new styles to add, to build on, its classical foundations," he added.

Next door to the 800-seat auditorium is the first certified professional choreography academy recognised throughout Central Asia and unveiled in September.

Three years earlier, the city's largest theatre, Astana Opera, also with its own ballet troupe, opened at a cost of $320 million (297 million euros). The building is considered one of the architectural showpieces of Astana, the capital since 1997. 

- 'Space exploration and ballet' - 

The money being poured into ballet and other arts, even as Kazakhstan suffers an oil-linked economic downturn, testifies to the enduring appeal of cultural tastes popular in the Soviet era.

Russian dancer Galina Ulanova, widely considered one of the greatest ballerinas of all time, has helped drive the development of Kazakh ballet.

Ulanova taught and danced in the country's former capital, Almaty, during World War II after being evacuated from the Kirov ballet in Leningrad, the former name for Saint Petersburg.

Under the USSR, ballet became particularly popular in major cities, where Russian-speaking elites helped buttress a cultural agenda driven by Moscow.

Now ballet is "equally popular among Russian-speakers and Kazakh-speakers" in a country where over a fifth of the population is ethnic Russian, says Svetlana Dzhalmagambetova, a former senator who sat on the parliament's social and cultural development committee.

"The Soviet Union did two things very well: space exploration and ballet," said Kazakh-speaking Zhanat Zhunusbekova, after watching Amarante's ballet "Diversity" at the Astana Ballet Theatre.

"We used to have to go to Russia to see a ballet like that. Now we have it here," she added.

- Pre-Soviet national culture -


After the end of the Soviet era in 1991, state funding for the arts shrivelled up across the region, which suffered a protracted economic slump. 

In the resource-poor countries of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan it has never recovered to pre-Soviet levels, driving artists abroad in search of work. 

"They earn no more than $140 per month," Aigul Muratalieva, a teacher at Kyrgyzstan's main ballet school, told AFP referring to the country's ballet dancers. 

"They gain experience here then go abroad. Our repertoire has greatly diminished. We have no soloists to take on the leading roles in important productions."

In other countries a new emphasis on pre-Soviet national culture has emerged at the expense of the classical arts.

Turkmenistan's authoritarian first president Saparmurat Niyazov banned ballet along with opera, insisting both were out of synch with the country's "national mentality".

- Keeping ballet at home -

During early independence, Kazakh ballet artists would also leave for foreign countries where their classical training was appreciated and they were better paid. 

Now, increasingly, the best ones stay.

The prima ballerina of Astana Opera, Aigerim Beketayeva, starred at the London Coliseum in 2014 in popular Russian choreographer Boris Eifman's production of Rodin. 

But like her international award-winning male counterpart Bakhtiyar Adamzhan, Beketayeva has remained attached to the Astana Opera troupe, which she joined after being offered a flat in the capital by the government.  

"Often when you watch ballet artists you can see the effort, their straining for perfection," Gulnara Zhumaseitova, a ballet expert at the Institute of Literature and Arts in Almaty, told AFP. 

"But Beketayeva is so effortless and natural," she said.

Zhumaseitova said however that the government must use the new academy to further develop "national dance that represents our culture and traditions" as well as find its ballet niche on the world stage.

"National productions based on our dances are something people might come from abroad to see. Currently, they can still watch a better version of Swan Lake in London or Paris," she said. 

Source: AFP

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

kazakhstan seeks to leap onto ballet world stage kazakhstan seeks to leap onto ballet world stage

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

kazakhstan seeks to leap onto ballet world stage kazakhstan seeks to leap onto ballet world stage

 



GMT 09:54 2018 Wednesday ,24 January

'Friendly and kind' N. Korean skaters

GMT 07:16 2018 Thursday ,18 January

Macron's tapestry gesture risks rousing

GMT 23:45 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

Europe in the pink of health, feels Bjorn

GMT 16:03 2017 Friday ,05 May

Ban on Omani foods

GMT 03:07 2017 Saturday ,30 September

Facebook helps UAE resident reunite with brother

GMT 00:05 2017 Wednesday ,15 November

Deadly heat from climate change may hit slums hardest

GMT 10:18 2016 Thursday ,27 October

Sharjah Book Fair’s Professional Programme attracts

GMT 13:56 2012 Sunday ,21 October

King Mohammed VI Gulf tour

GMT 19:28 2017 Sunday ,12 March

Carlos the Jackal faces trial again in France

GMT 05:55 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

US tax reforms send UBS profits plunging

GMT 06:01 2018 Saturday ,20 January

How to take a bullet, by 'Den of Thieves' star 50 Cent

GMT 23:50 2018 Thursday ,18 January

1.5 C climate goal 'very unlikely' but doable

GMT 08:42 2018 Wednesday ,17 January

Was preparing new version of 'Zombie'

GMT 13:06 2018 Tuesday ,16 January

The London Fashion Agency relaunches as LFA

GMT 14:17 2017 Friday ,03 February

Facing Trump trade threats, Mexico eyes new partners

GMT 10:33 2017 Thursday ,28 December

Putin files nomination for 2018 re-election bid

GMT 08:01 2017 Tuesday ,21 November

China's Tencent overtakes Facebook

GMT 10:15 2017 Tuesday ,21 November

US-Saudi warplanes hit Sanaa

GMT 07:42 2010 Wednesday ,15 September

Global regulators agree on tougher Basel III bank rules
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
 
 Emirates Voice Facebook,emirates voice facebook  Emirates Voice Twitter,emirates voice twitter Emirates Voice Rss,emirates voice rss  Emirates Voice Youtube,emirates voice youtube  Emirates Voice Youtube,emirates voice youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

emiratesvoieen emiratesvoiceen emiratesvoiceen emiratesvoiceen
emiratesvoice emiratesvoice emiratesvoice
emiratesvoice
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
emiratesvoice, Emiratesvoice, Emiratesvoice