People's Artist of the Kyrgyz SSR Uran Sarbagishev

Uran Sarbagishev

Despite his youth, the People's Artist of the Kyrgyz SSR, Uran Sarbagishev, is widely known beyond the republic. In 1966, at the Cuban festival, performing at the García Lorca Theater in Havana, he captivated ballet connoisseurs with his artistry. Shortly after the festival opened, Havana newspapers unanimously recognized him as "the best of the dancers." And this was at a festival where the best dancers in the world competed!

Most Kyrgyz actors come from families quite distant from the arts. Moreover, the fathers and mothers of today's ballet masters not only did not see the theater in their lives, but also could neither read nor write, or, at best, learned to read and write during the Soviet era.

Uran Sarbagishev is a fortunate exception. His father, Otunchu Sarbagishev, was one of the first enthusiasts of the Kyrgyz national theater, a director, and playwright. Unfortunately, Otunchu Sarbagishev's life was cut short (he died in 1944), but his name is not forgotten—he is one of those who made a significant contribution to the culture of his people.

Uran has little memory of his father: when he died, the boy was only ten years old. But his love for the theater was undoubtedly inherited from his father. In 1947, he was accepted into the Leningrad Choreographic School, where he initially studied under M. B. Strakhova, and later with L. S. Petrov, B. V. Soloviev, and Yu. Ya. Druzhinin.

Perhaps nowhere do acting abilities manifest as early as in ballet theater. The talent of a dramatic or operatic actor usually reveals itself in adulthood. As for a ballet artist, their abilities emerge in childhood. This was the case with Uran. It was not only that he, energetic and agile, quickly mastered the basics of classical dance, demonstrating well-developed elevations and ballon, but he also exhibited a natural artistry, without which a ballet master is unthinkable. Fortunately, he realized early on that talent without continuous effort and technical perfection remains, so to speak, "a thing in itself." To lift his partner, or even just to support her in a pirouette, requires strength, agility, and persistent training.

And the lightness that now characterizes his dance is the result of many years of physical preparation.

Ballet