Postcard from Bishkek

It’s a long time since I last went to the ballet, so I was surprised the other day when I got a phone call from Andrei to say that he had met Calvin, (another one of my friends), who had been to a number of performances recently and had invited him to one that night, asking if i wanted to go along.

I wasn’t sure, and am still not sure, what surprised me most … the invitation that came out of the blue, the fact that the performance started at seven o’clock, (which is a little late for Bishkek), or the fact that Andrei was going.  It’s not his sort of music; he prefers Rock, but I knew that he had been a couple of times and seemed to enjoy the spectacle … so, as Robert Kennedy is supposed to have said, “instead of asking “why?”, perhaps we should ask “why not?”

Anyway, it has been some time since I last went to an evening at the ballet and as I had nothing on that evening and readily agreed, and they said that they would get me a ticket – and it proved to be an evening of surprises.

I arrived a little early and Andrei was already waiting, “champing at the bit”.  As we hung around waiting for Calvin, I was surprised to see several people that I knew.

I took an opportunity to look at the placards lining the facade and saw that this was probably the last evening of ballet for the season.  There are three operas being performed next week, but that will probably mark the end of the Opera season as everything tends to shut down for the summer.  This particular performance was billed as “Rising Stars” and was to feature performances by several of the students at the Ballet School supported by some visiting soloists (from Russia and Kazakhstan) as well as members of the Bishkek company.

Calvin’s taxi eventually arrived and Andrei announced that he was hungry and was going to the buffet to get a sandwich.  He seemed to know the way, which was also a little surprising – but as I said, he has been a couple of times and has obviously got his bearings.

Calvin commented that several of other friends had told him that they had never been to the ballet or Opera and never been to the theater … which is a pity because it is a great building; classical and highly decorative.  As it happens, during the interval when Andrei and I went to get a breath of fresh air, we met one of his friends, (who was waiting to meet yet  yet another friend – and this was the appointed spot for the assignation … well known and with a reasonably large square in front of it so it hard to miss each other), and he told me that he had never been inside either.

After Andrei had his sandwich, w entered the auditorium and took our seats.  Although we had numbered seats, everyone seemed to find places as if they hadn’t already been allocated.  Although the hall was not by any means full, there were a good number of people in the audience – many of them young people … presumably some of them members of the Ballet School, and their families.

In some respects, this seemed to be a valedictory concert.  It was a Charity performance with some of the proceeds going to support dancers and part of a project involving a Ballet school from St. Petersburg and the Opera and Ballet companies of Astana, in Kazakhstan.

When the lights dimmed, we were treated to the usual speeches that are so common on such occasions – one of which informed us that members of the school Several of the performers that night came from families with a long family tradition in the development of Ballet in Kyrgyzstan.   Her highlighted of their several success, in particular the 24 Silver medals won by the young people from the school in a recent international competition.

Eventually the music started up … it was all recorded, rather than performed by live musicians,  and played through a PA system.  Whilst there are advantages to having prerecorded music, there were times when I thought that it would also have been an advantage for someone to reach for the volume control.

The programme consisted of a wide variety of pieces – some classical, (excerpts from works by the likes of Tchaikovsky),  but also some modern pieces of contemporary dance.

One of the advantages of not having been to the ballet for so long was that everything seemed fresh and lively … even the pieces I had seen before came with a new new freshness and vitality which was emphasized by the youth, vigour and enthusiasm of the performers … who were very good and the occasion proved an admirable showcase for their talent.

As it happens, I am often surprised by the standard of performances here … Ballet is not really part of the traditional nomadic culture and there is a relatively small population  - half of them living in rural districts with little or no access to ballet classes – from which to draw a pool of talent.  Having said that, the natural ability, enthusiasm and vitality of the young performers, combined with careful and skilled training by experienced choreographers, result in striking performances and, hopefully, point to a bright future for Ballet in Kyrgyzstan.

 

 

 

Tags: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan