The Birth of Kyrgyz Ballet
For a century, the land of the Kyrgyz has repeatedly become the arena of brutal battles. The Kyrgyz people experienced the dominance of Turkic, Mongolian, Dzungar, and Kokand khans. The conquerors changed, but nothing changed in the fate of the people. Cut off from cultural centers and ruthlessly exploited by both conquerors and their own bay and manap, the Kyrgyz people were in a state of extreme backwardness. Literacy, written literature, and science were inaccessible to the laborer.
Yet even under the most merciless oppression, the artistic talent of the people grew stronger and developed. Whatever area of folk creativity we take—be it games or rituals, the tales of the manaschi or the songs of the akyn—elements of vibrant theatricality are evident everywhere. However, despite this, in the pre-revolutionary era, folk creativity did not have the opportunity to evolve into more developed forms of art. Only the Great October Revolution, which brought true freedom to the oppressed peoples of Tsarist Russia, opened wide access to the entire heritage of world culture. As a natural consequence of this historical turning point, the vigorous development of Kyrgyz professional art began in all its forms, including the vibrant, original art of dance that defined the birth of the Kyrgyz ballet theater.
The vast experience accumulated by the Russian ballet theater at the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century contributed to its unprecedented flourishing after the Great October Socialist Revolution. The fame of Russian ballet spread across all continents. Soviet ballet art continues its democratic traditions, having gifted the world outstanding ballerinas and dancers such as E. Geltser, V. Krieger, M. Semenova, G. Ulanova, S. Lepeshinskaya, M. Plisetskaya, V. Chabukiani, N. Dudin, T. Vecheslova, S. Golovkina, S. Messerer, M. Gabovich, K. Sergeev, O. Iordan, and choreographers like A. Vaganova, V. Vainonen, R. Zakharov, L. Lavrovsky, I. Moiseyev, A. Messerer, L. Yakobson, N. Kholfin.
The Russian ballet school was the foundation upon which the majestic edifice of Soviet multinational ballet art rose, with its rich repertoire and talented artists. A vivid example of this is the Kyrgyz professional ballet.
In ancient times, it is unlikely that the Kyrgyz had an art of dance in the modern understanding, although the desire for plastic movement, in which one could poetically express mood and feelings, always existed, as evidenced by various types of folklore.
Before the Great October Socialist Revolution, Kyrgyz oral-poetic creativity in all its areas developed spontaneously, largely in defiance of existing state and religious laws. The authorities' prohibitions on one side and the low standard of living of the people on the other were the main reasons for the absence of professional art in the past. However, if numerous genres of oral-poetic creativity existed over the centuries, it took a long time before the opportunity arose to speak of the art of dance.
Did the Kyrgyz have dance in the past?
Until recently, the answer to this question would not have posed particular difficulties. Authors of many works on Kyrgyz art categorically deny the existence of any Kyrgyz choreographic folklore or folk dances. It is difficult to unconditionally agree with this viewpoint.
As is known, the peoples of Central Asia, despite their close proximity, followed different paths in their historical development. The Kyrgyz and Kazakhs, for example, led a nomadic lifestyle, while the Uzbeks always lived in settled conditions. This determined the different levels of artistic culture among these peoples. The Uzbeks created their professional art, which, of course, could not exist among nomads. The researcher of the history of Uzbek theater, Anna Korsakova, writes about the existence of professional dancers among the Uzbeks ("bachi"), who organized ballet performances in the palaces of khans.
However, the specifics of a nomadic lifestyle do not provide grounds to believe that the Kyrgyz did not have amateur dance in the past, reflecting the peculiarities of the people's life and customs. There are sufficient reasons for such an assumption; they will be discussed below. Now it is appropriate to recall the statement of V. I. Lenin that we must "not forget the fundamental historical connection, to look at each question from the perspective of how a given phenomenon arose in history, what main stages it went through in its development, and from the perspective of this development to see what this thing has become now." These Leninist words are a key to our topic.
Considering the history of the development of Kyrgyz ballet dialectically, we must follow the historical connection of this process, seeking its origins in the entirety of the artistic culture of the people. It is hard to imagine that the Kyrgyz's desire for rhythm and plasticity, vividly expressed in various forms of this culture, did not find expression at least in the most primitive dance.
In the works of Russian travelers from the pre-revolutionary era, it was repeatedly noted that in a rare Kyrgyz yurt, there was no musical instrument, and almost every Kyrgyz could play one of them. The surviving ancient Kyrgyz folk melodies often have a structure reminiscent of dance rhythm.
For example, take the widely popular folk melody of the march "Botoy," arranged by Toktogul. This melody has that youthful bravado that usually accompanies a vigorous impulse, manifested in a wild dance where temperament finds expression in broad, sweeping movements. The songs of the akyns, accompanied by the komuz or kyiyak, although mostly recitative in nature, always exhibited, as noted by V. V. Radlov, a "clear rhythmic pattern." This is also pointed out by the expert on Kyrgyz musical folklore A. V. Zataevich. In particular, commenting on Toktogul's piece "Toguz Kairysh" ("Nine Variations"), he noted: "This piece of his 'flows out,' evoking with its measured, clear rhythm the thought of applying this music to some... dance." The contemporary researcher of Kyrgyz music, V. Vinogradov, makes an even more definite statement: "In Kyrgyz music, there are many playful, cheerful songs, lively dance tunes."
Musical tunes and melodies that possess rhythmic coherence characteristic of dance were not a coincidence. They reflected the objective regularities of the life of the Kyrgyz, the presence in their artistic practice of elements of what is commonly referred to as dance culture. Let it have existed in embryonic forms, but it existed so tangibly that it found its reflection in an adjacent form of art—music.
Researchers of Kyrgyz music have proven that dance rhythms have always been inherent in Kyrgyz folk music. If music has carried through the centuries its characteristic structure, including dance rhythms, it is because the development of musical folklore was in more favorable conditions than dance, which was viewed as a lower, even unworthy activity. This explains the uneven development of various forms of art in the past. But the fact that dance rhythms and melodies developed and were preserved in music suggests the existence in the distant past of some prototypes of modern dance.
The existence of dance among the Kyrgyz is also evidenced by the epic "Manas." Finally, one cannot overlook the fact of the lexical designation of dance. In the Kyrgyz language, there are words such as бий (dance), бийлее (to dance), бийчи (dancer), бийчи киши (dancer), эл бийлери (folk dances). However, the etymology of the root word бий is not precisely known to science. As suggested by Academician K. K. Yudakhin, this word belongs to borrowings, but the time of its appearance in the Kyrgyz language is not established. In any case, it is not a neologism; it is widely used among the people and has many derivatives. In particular, besides the word бийчи, Academician K. K. Yudakhin also points to the existence of such a term as бийчи кю (dance melody).
There are as many arguments for the existence of dance folklore in the past as there are against it. But, of course, the question arises: what explains the fact that the rhythm in the music and songs of the people not only has been preserved but has also developed, while traces of dance folklore are hard to find? There may be many answers. It is possible that dance disappeared under the pressure of everyday specifics or some other historical conditions that created favorable circumstances for its persecution. We believe it is necessary to at least briefly address the issue of the origins of the undeniable theatricality of Kyrgyz folk art, which, in our opinion, was a decisive factor in the accelerated, in the historical aspect, formation of the Kyrgyz national ballet.