Abai: Poetry in Motion – Astana Ballet’s Tribute
Astana Ballet Revives “The Language of Love” Ballet, paying Tribute to Kazakh Poet Abai Kunanbaiuly
Astana Ballet, in a captivating performance highlighted by music and passion, recently brought back to life the ballet “The Language of Love,” paying tribute to the profound Kazakh poet Abai Kunanbaiuly. The ballet was performed on Feb. 2-3.
This ballet, which tells the life story of Abai through his songs, poetry, and choreography by Honored Worker of Kazakhstan Mukaram Avakhri, made its premiere in 2016. The performance opens with the song “Kozimnin Karasy” (The Light of My Eyes), taking the audience back to the beginning, as a child and then a young man, when Abai first began to seek the truth in knowledge.
The ballet then leads the viewers through Abai’s life in a series of variations based on his songs and poems, such as “The Seasons of the Year” variation, reflecting Abai’s well-known poems describing each season. Additionally, the ballet portrays Abai’s anguish over unfulfilled affection for his first true love, Togzhan, and his reluctant marriage to Dilda. The ballet does an excellent job of intertwining these moments into a communicative dance that drives a captivating 30-minute performance.
According to leading soloist Sungat Sultanov, who portrays Abai in the ballet, capturing the character’s inner emotions and thoughts was a challenging aspect of his performance.
“I would say that the difficulty is that this man, my character [Abai], is known to everybody in Kazakhstan and beyond. To show to people what his inner emotions were, everything that he had going on inside and everything he wrote – that was the hardest thing to do,” said Sultanov.
However, with the trust rooted in Sultanov’s years working with choreographer Avakhri, he was able to capture Abai’s character in his movements and reach the hearts of the viewers.
“I read poems and watched documentaries [in preparation]. I could say that it was unusual for me compared to the other classical ballets. I drew more from the choreographer than from the biography because I don’t know what kind of person Abai was, and I tried to take and show the image that the choreographer sees,” he added.
“The Language of Love” is a ballet that beautifully captures the essence of Abai Kunanbaiuly and his life through the universal language of dance.
