Today, 25th June, Flora Ganievna Kaydani the National artist of RSFSR is celebrating her 80th birthday. She used to be a principal dancer of the Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre since 1964 till 1979, in the “Swan Lake” alone she has performed more than 800 times.
“I danced a lot on this huge stage and I it was my pleasure all the time – tells Flora Kaydani – I performed almost all title roles, Odette – Odile in “Swan Lake” Nikiya in “La Bayadere”, both Mekhmene Banu and Shireen in “A Legend of love”.
Flora Kaydani was born in 1937, Tashkent, and since the very childhood she had been practicing folk dancing, then at 10 she entered Tashkent choreographic school. In 1951 Flora Kaydani took part in Uzbek Art decade in Moscow and won a medal “For Work Excellence”. After graduating from the ballet school she was invited to the ballet company of Alisher Navoi Tashkent Theatre. The young soloist took part in V and VI Youth and Student Festival. She won the first prize and the gold medal for her outstanding performance in 1955 at the festival in Warsaw, and after that she travelled through China, India, Burma, Syria and Lebanon. A year after, Flora Kaydani successfully participated at the Festival in Moscow. 1961 – 1964 she had been working at Ayni Kyrgyz Theatre.
Flora Kaydani was invited to the Novosibirsk ballet company in 1964 by a brilliant ballet master Petr Gusev who was in charge of the company at that time. The same year Flora Kaydani became a principal dancer after performing for the first time in Novosibirsk the Odette – Odile part of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” together with Nikita Dolgushin, the Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
“My characters are all different and I love them all in their own special way – noted Flora Ganievna – once I had to dance Aurora of the “Sleeping Beauty” six times in a row; moreover, the fifth one was in the evening and the sixth one was noontime”.
Her best parts on the Novosibirsk stage were Odette – Odile from “Swan Lake” and Aurora from “Sleeping Beauty” by Tchaikovsky, Kitri from “Don Quixote” by L. Minkus, “Giselle” from Adan’s ballet of the same name, The Mistress of the Copper Mountain from Prokofiev’s “The Stone Flower”, Ice Maiden from “Ice Maiden” with Grieg’s music edited by B. V. Asafiev, Shireen and Mekhmene Banu from “A Legend of Love” ballet by A. D. Melikov, Cleopatra from Lazarev’s “Antony and Cleopatra”.
Flora Kaydani was good at both lyric and tragic characters, but she was particularly interested in folk character dances – Uzbek, Arab, Indian, which were always well received by the audience. Aurora has become the most significant part for the ballerina, due to her work with Leningrad masters who had already staged “Sleeping Beauty” in Novosibirsk, and with the National Artists of the USSR Natalya Mikhaylovna Dudinskaya and Konstantin Mikhailovich Sergeyev.
“Flora Kaydani mastered the Aurora part better than the other performers – said “Sovetskaya Rossiya” newspaper in 1967 after the Moscow tour of the Novosibirsk ballet company – it’s not just about the artful dance, precise duet work, perfect sense of style. The Aurora of hers is somehow very modern, bright, shining, joyful. The actress created a full scale, subtle portrait, clearly capturing and depicting the part rich in melody and meaning”.
The experts spoke of her solid finger technique, rare balance and light spins. The ballerina toured a lot with the company across our country and abroad. Her skills were highly appreciated in Japan, France, Hungary, Germany, Austria and New Zealand.
In 1967 Flora Kaydani started to give lessons at the Novosibirsk choreographic school and beside that she worked as a tutor at the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet theatre, Catholic Culture centre in Thaiwan, Hungarian Opera and Ballet theatre, Hungarian National Dance Academy, where she still holds a position of an Honorary Professor. Her famous disciples are Natalyia Chekhovskaya, the National Artist of Russia and Vasily Polushin, the National Artist of Russia.
Flora Ganievna Kaydani has been living in Krasnoyarsk since 1979.
“I did a great job, served out 30 years – mentioned Flora Kaydani. I have danced more than 800 times in “Swan Lake” alone, a performance loved by public, hard for ballerinas”.
Watch a screen ballet “Spanish sketches” featuring Flora Kaydani.
