Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theatre

The Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre was opened on December 14, 1938. The representatives of the first generation of artists of Bashkortostan – Gaziz Almukhametov and Faizi Gaskarov, sent students to study at national studios at the Leningrad Choreographic School and the Moscow Conservatory.

During the  Second World war, the Kyiv Academic Opera and Ballet Theater was evacuated to Ufa. The fruitful creative community of young Bashkir and experienced Ukrainian artists contributed to the formation of performing culture and artistic taste, the aesthetic position of a young musical theatre.

The mature skill of the theatre team was clearly manifested during the Decade of Bashkir Literature and Art in Moscow in 1955. About 70 artists were awarded high government awards and honorary titles, Zaytuna Nasretdinova became a People’s Artist of the USSR, the third in the country after Galina Ulanova and Olga Lepeshinskaya.

The name of the brilliant dancer of the 20th century Rudolf Nureev is inextricably linked with the history of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre. He took his first steps towards world fame on its stage. Since 1993, on the initiative of Yuri Grigorovich, festivals of ballet art named after Rudolf Nureev. The authority of the Nureev celebrations and their fame went far beyond the borders of Bashkortostan. Over the years, the leading soloists of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters, dancers from Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Japan, Latvia, the USA, the creative teams “Grigorovich Ballet”, “Russian Ballet” V. Gordeev, the Cairo Ballet, the ballet troupe of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre. P. Tchaikovsky and others.

The creative principles that have been formed over the course of seven decades live and develop: this is a careful attitude to traditions, laid down by previous generations, and the constant improvement of craftsmanship. The key to the success of the theatre is highly professional creative teams.