A glimpse into the past: Rare footage reveals Kazakhstan’s legendary dancer
The Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan announced the discovery of a rare video recording of legendary dancer Shara Zhienkulova in the Russian State Film and Photo Archive in Krasnogorsk, as part of the Archive 2025 State Program, Kazinform News Agency reports.
“This historically valuable video material, in which the artist dances to the folk song ‘Bipyl,’ is currently stored in the Kazakhstan Central State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Recordings and has never been published before,” the ministry said.
According to experts, the footage was filmed during the closing concert of the Ten-Day Festival of Kazakh Literature and Art, which took place on December 21, 1958.
The event is considered one of the first large-scale cultural showcases introducing the Soviet Union to the Kazakh people's culture and art.
In 1934, Shara Zhienkulova performed the Kazakh national dance “Kelinshek” for the first time in Mukhtar Auezov’s play “Aiman – Sholpan.”
In addition, in Yevgeny Brusilovsky’s operas “Kyz Zhibek,” “Zhalbyr,” and “Yer Targyn,” she widely popularized the art of Kazakh national dance, the ministry says.
As Kazinform previously reported, the 210th anniversary of the great Kazakh composer Tattimbet Kazangapuly was marked in Ankara.
