Culture and the arts

The artistic and cultural life of the Sakha Republic is one of the richest in Russia with its ancient epics and contemporary literature, performing arts, folk and classical music, ballet and painting.
There are several theatres in the republic, based both in Yakutsk and in other cities. There are also some amateur theatre groups in towns and villages. Read more...

Theatres and museums
The artistic and cultural life of the Sakha Republic is one of the richest in Russia with its ancient epics and contemporary literature, performing arts, folk and classical music, ballet and painting.
There are several theatres in the republic, based both in Yakutsk and in other cities. There are also some amateur theatre groups in towns and villages. In addition, touring companies from Moscow, other cities in Russia and foreign countries visit Yakutsk.
The Russian Academic Drama Theatre, named after A. S. Pushkin, was the first professional theatre group, established in 1920. Classics as well as plays by contemporary Russian and foreign authors are staged at the theatre and many famous Russian touring companies have performed there. The Sakha Academic Drama Theatre, named after Platon Oyunsky, is one of the most popular theatres in the republic and has a good reputation throughout Russia. Its performances of The Beloved Blue Shore and King Lear were awarded the State Prize of the former USSR and Russia, and the performance of Kyys Dyebiliye won the prestigious Russian Golden Mask award.
The Opera and Ballet Theatre is known for its breathtaking performances. The voices of Anegina Ilyina, Nina Chigiryova, Aitalina Adamova, Ivan Stepanov and others are known in many countries. Aitalina Adamova, a winner of the international Tchaikovsky competition, was invited to sing at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Ivan Stepanov has been awarded the title of the best bass in Russia.
The most significant event for ballet lovers is the International Ballet Festival, the Sterkh, which is traditionally held once every two years. Brilliant ballet dancers from the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres, from the Ukraine, Tatarstan and other places, demonstrate their skill to the Sakha people.
There is a puppet theatre in Neryungry and a drama theatre in Nyurba, both of which are known for their superb performances.
In 1994, the Sakha State Circus was established. The backbone of its troupe is a group of acrobats and jugglers trained at the Beijing Circus School and the Moscow and Ekaterinburg circus studios. Every year, the annual Baby Mammoth circus festivals, are held by the Sakha Circus.
There are about eighty museums in Yakutia. One of the oldest museums is the Ethnographic Museum of the People of the North. Ethnographic artifacts showing the traditional culture of the people of the north, the historical evolution of the region and the latest findings are displayed in the museum's exhibition rooms. The National Museum of Fine Arts contains comprehensive collections of Western and Russian paintings, paintings by local artists as well as bone and wooden sculptures and other artistic works.
There are a great number of children's choirs and dance companies and about ninety children's music and art schools. Every year, the Polar Star contest brings together hundreds of young performers from throughout the republic to compete in singing and dancing.
Professional training in music and ballet is given at the Higher School of Music and the Ballet School in Yakutsk, while the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts trains future librarians, theatre managers, actors and sculptors.

The theatre was founded on October 17th, 1925, starting with a Sakha group within the Russian Drama Theatre. In the 30s, it was known under the name of Platon Oyunsky, the founder of Yakut literature and a well-known public figure. In 1995, the theatre was given its present title.Read more...

The theatre was founded on October 17th, 1925, starting with a Sakha group within the Russian Drama Theatre. In the 30s, it was known under the name of Platon Oyunsky, the founder of Yakut literature and a well-known public figure. In 1995, the theatre was given its present title. The theatre occupies a comfortable, modern building, and has a revolving stage, dressing rooms and a make¬up room. The 400-seat auditorium is equipped with simultaneous translation into Russian and English.
Since 1983, the artistic director of the theatre has been Andrey Borisov. The current theatre repertoire includes more than thirty performances by Sakha playwrights, Russian and foreign authors, both for adults and children. Plays by William Shakespeare, such as King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream; Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters; Nikolay Gogol's Marriage; Anton Chekhov's The Seagull and Chingiz Aitmatov's The Beloved Blue Shore, are among the theatre's most famous performances.
Borisov's first production, The Beloved Blue Shore, by the Kirgiz writer Chingiz Aitmatov, was staged in 1982. With this first production, Andrey Borisov depicted the inseparability of human beings from nature and the world around them. Another performance staged by Borisov was Shakespeare's King Lear. The Sakha interpretation of King Lear was a discovery for theatre critics at the Beginning festival in Moscow in 1997. The critics were unanimous that the production was 'absolutely Sakha Lear', while the problems highlighted by the performance remain universal. Both works were awarded the highest prize - the State Prize of the Russian Federation.
The year 2002 was remarkable with the performance of Kyys Debiliyef based on the olonkho, an epic poem about a woman warrior. The performance is full of expressive dialogues and dramatic monologues with traditional singing and gorgeous costumes. Many years earlier, when Andrey Borisov was a student, he dreamt of creating an olonkho theatre production that would express the philosophy, ethics and aesthetics of the Sakha people. The performance of Kyys Debiliye turned Borisov's dream into reality. At the All-Russian Theatre Festival, the performance was awarded the Golden Mask.
The theatre troupe takes part in international contests and festivals. They have performed in many countries, including the USA, Mexico, Norway, Finland, France, Poland, Germany, Switzerland and Turkey.

The history of the museum goes as far back as the year 1926, when the first exhibition of fine arts was
organised in Yakutsk. Two years later, in 1928, the picture gallery was opened and it later developed into the Museum of Fine Arts.Read more...

The history of the museum goes as far back as the year 1926, when the first exhibition of fine arts was
organised in Yakutsk. Two years later, in 1928, the picture gallery was opened and it later developed into the Museum of Fine Arts. Such public and political figures as Maksim Ammosov, Anempodist Sofronov and the first Sakha artists Pyotr Romanov and Mikhail Nosov contributed to its opening. On display in the gallery were 106 paintings and sketches by Russian artists Konstantin Korovin, Vasily Tropinin, Konstantin Makovsky, Vasily Polenov, Isaac Levitan and others. Since then, Russian art of the 20th century has been added, represented by the works of by Vladimir Favorsky and Pyotr Konchalovsky.
The western european collection of paintings was built around the private collection of Mikhail Fyodorovich Gabyshev. His family gave more than 250 works of art from western Europe of the period between the 16th and 19th centuries to the museum in the 1960s. Now the foreign art collection is in a newly-founded branch of the museum - the Museum of Western European Art.
Other collections at the National Museum of Fine Arts include the national arts and crafts of the Sakha Republic. Sakha painters are represented by the work of Afanasy Osipov, Eduard Vasilyev, Nikolay Innokentyev, Victor Petrov, Nikolay Pavlov and Lyudmila Sleptsova, and the drawings of
Afanasy Munkhalov, Vladimir Karamzin and Maria Rakhleeva. In the works of the younger generation of artists, one can see an unusual mixture of Russian and European avant-garde styles with the indigenous symbolic approach that has its roots in folklore. These are the canvases of Marina Khandy, Olga Rakhleeva, Lilia Popova and others. The leader of the young artists is Mikhail Starostin. He has a very expressive, energetic
style, with a deliberate use of primitivism.
The bright panorama of fine arts in Yakutia is to be seen in the department of national arts and crafts. There are excellent examples of pieces of art from the 17th to 19th century by craftsmen of the times, who used horsehair, fur, embroidery, engraving and blacking on silver, woodcarvings and birch bark.
The arts and crafts of the Sakha Republic have been exhibited in many cities, both in Russia and abroad. The museum conducts educational work too. There are programmes for children and young people. Many schools offer museum classes, where children attend the exhibitions and listen to lectures by art experts. The museum has also established good relations with such famous museums in Russia as the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. This provides the opportunity for participation in conferences, training seminars and of course, to exchange information.

The first steps towards the development of ballet were made in the 1940s. The official birthday of Sakha ballet is June 29th, 1947, when the first ballet, The Field Flower, was staged. Read more...

The first steps towards the development of ballet were made in the 1940s. The first ballet in the republic came from the gifted composer and musician, Mark Zhirkov. His musical drama based on the Yakut epic with an olonkho motif, Nyurgun Bootur the Swift, contained five full dance scenes. It was the beginning of ballet. After that, Russian choreography started to give the Sakha access to this european art, which was then very new to the people. Russian choreographer Ivan A. Karenin began to train ballet dancers. From those early days until now, Sakha ballet has been connected with the Russian Ballet School.
The official birthday of Sakha ballet is June 29th, 1947, when the first ballet, The Field Flower, was staged.
The first professional ballet dancer, Evdokiya Stepanova, was called 'a Yakut diamond', 'a white crane (sterkh)', and 'northern Juliet' by the ballet critics. The images created by this dancer in classical and contemporary ballet performances added to the achievements of Sakha ballet. Evdokiya Stepanova was awarded the Rudolf Nureyev medal and a diploma at the International Diaghilev competition.

Classical ballet in the Artcic
The next stage at the development of ballet was in 1964, when the national ballet Churumchuku was first staged. It is still in the repertoire of the Opera and Ballet Theatre. Its value is in the originality of the choreography, which has to do with folk traditions and customs. Then Giselle was staged. The main role was danced by Natalya Khristoforova, who came from a family with a ballet tradition. Inspiration, purity and charm characterised her dancing. Her partner, Alexey Popov, was an emotional, handsome, very artistic dancer. For many years, Popov worked as the main choreographer of the theatre and staged more than twenty ballet performances, the most famous being The Feat (German Komrakov), Romeo and Juliet (Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky) and Cinderella (Sergey S. Prokofiev). His main achievement was the formation of the ballet troupe.
The famous ballet schools of Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Perm and Ulan-Ude have trained several generations of gifted Sakha ballet dancers. The repertoire says much about the professional level of the troupe. It includes such world masterpieces as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Aurora's Wedding, Romeo and Juliet; La Bayadere and Don Quixote by Leon Minkus, and others. Modern choreography and national themes have also found their place in the repertoire.
A significant contribution to the development of the art of ballet has been made by the International Ballet Festival, the Sterkh. A sterkh is a white crane which dances beautifully during marriages. According to Sakha legend, if someone sees a white crane dancing they will be happy and lucky all their life. The festival takes place once every two years, with about 300 participants taking part. Leading dancers from the best troupes in Russia and from abroad demonstrate their art to ballet lovers in Yakutia. Professional master classes, conferences and photographic exhibitions are all part of the programme of the festival. Thanks to the festival, people have enjoyed the mastership of Nina Ananiashvili, Ilze Liepa, Natalya Ledovskaya, Vladimir Vasilyev, and others.