People's Artist of the USSR Bubusara Beishenalieva is among the leading figures of Soviet ballet. Her remarkable body of work reflects the development of ballet in Kyrgyzstan, an art form born from the Great October Revolution
She was among the pioneers who laid the foundation for national choreography and significantly influenced the path of Kyrgyz classical dance. Beishenalieva's performance style is distinctly individual, marked by a deep understanding of her characters' inner worlds and a strong adherence to the traditions of Russian and Soviet ballet schools.
Despite this, her dance primarily speaks to contemporary audiences, as she aims to convey the life, thoughts, and dreams of modern individuals — creators, builders, and fighters for a bright future. Bubusara Beishenalieva made her debut at the Kyrgyz Opera and Ballet Theatre in 1941, dancing the mazurka in the newly staged ballet "Coppélia". This day marked the beginning of the Kyrgyz ballerina's artistic career.
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However, Bubusara's introduction to ballet occurred much earlier,in the summer of 1936, when a visiting admissions committee from the Leningrad Choreographic School,led by ballet master V.A. Varkovitsky, selected her along with 24 other Kyrgyz children to study in the distant city on the Neva River.
The towering buildings,long avenues, shady parks, and expansive river astonished the ten-year-old girl from the remote Kyrgyz village of Tash-Tube. Small, thin, wearing a red plush coat and many braids, not knowing a word of Russian, shy and timid, Bubusara felt lost in this vast city
The first person to show her care and attention, becoming almost a second mother, was her teacher, Natalia Alexandrovna Kamkova. A soloist at the Leningrad Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after S.M. Kirov, Kamkova took her young students from the distant republic to heart. Her involvement with them went beyond classroom lessons; she intertwined her life with theirs, starting with their morning walks around the Catherine Garden, a ritual that became a cherished tradition for each student.
Despite the demanding schedule filled with specialized and general education lessons, rehearsals, performances, and concerts, when it seemed there wasn't a single free minute for childhood games, Bubusara always knew her kind, wise mentor was there to share in her joys and sorrows. "We were like wild stones," Bubusara recalls. "We didn't know a word of Russian. We just felt that we were loved here and that they wanted to teach us something good. What exactly, we didn't know. We simply believed it was necessary. And to this day, it's a mystery to me how they taught us to understand Russian, then the French ballet terminology, and at the same time master the intricacies of mathematics and physics, and enter the fascinating world of literature, history, and geography...
It still seems like a miracle." For the final concert of the Leningrad Choreographic School, among other performances, the students prepared a grand classical pas de deux from Glazunov's ballet "Raymonda." Graduates and some senior students were chosen as performers. When Bubusara saw her name on the list of performers, she thought there must have been a mistake. However, Natalia Alexandrovna confirmed the accuracy of the assignment. It's difficult to convey the feeling that enveloped Bubusara when she first heard Glazunov's music. Something magical, inexplicable filled her soul: the music felt familiar, having resonated with the girl many times before, and the images inspired by the music were long-known and close to her heart. Above all, in Glazunov's music, Bubusara was drawn to "its clarity, bright, serene clarity...
Dense, impenetrable, like the deep blue of the sky above a high snowy peak or the color of water in mountain alpine lakes—on high overturned bowls." Could Bubusara have imagined then that in 5-6 years she would have to become the first interpreter of the role of Raymonda on the Kyrgyz stage and that her performance in this role would pass the test for the title of ballerina? But the final concert was not destined to take place. The dreadful word "war" turned the whole established way of life upside down. Bubusara, along with a group of Kyrgyz girls and boys, returned to Frunze.
During the wartime period, they seemed to grow up faster,accelerating their transition to adulthood and hastening their development as artists,becoming skilled masters of their craft.
Many of the students in the studio were entrusted with important solo roles in the theater's performances at that time. In "Laurencia," Bubusara performed a brief solo piece, a variation characterized by running movements, as her character attempted to evade her playful friends, injecting even more energy and liveliness into the group of cheerful girls.
Bubusara felt intense nerves before her debut. Suddenly, midway through the performance, the theater plunged into darkness, but after a tense pause, when the stage was once again bathed in festive light, the conductor signaled for Bubusara to resume her dance. With swift movements, she gracefully resumed her performance, and the enthusiastic applause served as the initial acknowledgment of her achievement.
Bubusara managed to balance her roles as a teacher, performer, and parliamentarian, often traveling for sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Her students always saw her off at the airport.
In the theater, she was called Buba or Bubochka, while the Jews living nearby referred to her simply as Sarochka. On the theatrical stage, Bubusara embodied more than three dozen female characters - from the modest Zainura in "Selkinchek" to the sorceress Ayday from the ballet "Cholpon".
The national sweetheart was untouched by "stardom". Moreover, she was adored for her unconventional sense of humor and ability to parody well-known personalities.
While on tour, Bubusara started to experience concerning symptoms. In Tyumen, she received a diagnosis of a tumor, yet she fulfilled all her performance commitments before traveling to Moscow. It was only after completing her tour that she admitted herself to the Central Clinical Hospital, commonly referred to as the Kremlin Hospital. Despite grappling with a serious illness, Bubusara's focus remained on her sole son, for whom she sought guardianship.
"My illness has taught me a lot. I realized that I wasted so much energy on the theater. In return, apart from diplomas, I gained nothing. I didn't receive the most important thing - human relationships.
I've been sick for a whole month now, and not a single bastard (excuse me) bothered to ask how I am. They can't even give me the money that is owed to me. In the end, they could have sent it to me or home through the mail. Perhaps I deserved at least that much. So take care of yourself and that's it. To hell with everyone else. The most important thing is health. But, alas, I realized it too late," wrote Bubusara Beyshenaliyeva resentfully.
It's been almost half a century since Bubusara left us. She passed away at the age of 46 on May 10, 1973. But the legacy of the queen of Kyrgyz ballet is eternal: Bubusara lives on in the collective memory of the people and in our culture, alive in the movements of dancers who were trained by her.
Our hero
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