In September 2026, the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Almaty opened its 93rd season. Every performance here begins long before the curtain rises: in rehearsal halls, movements are refined; in workshops, sets are created; and in dressing rooms, preparations are made for the stage. A photo report offered a glimpse behind the scenes, showing the daily life of the theater and its people, according to infohub.kz.
The theater opened in Almaty in 1934. Today, a large team works on its productions — artists, musicians, painters, costumers, makeup artists, and set builders. Their daily efforts preserve the theater's traditions and, season after season, fill it with the special atmosphere that brings audiences back.
Here, everyone's work matters — from the welder creating the framework of the sets to the seamstress working on the tiniest details of a costume. This work shapes the complete world of a performance, where the strength of the frame and the precision of each costume are equally important.
The theater's workshops are filled with creative disorder: tools sit alongside parts of future sets, and traces of paint and work on productions are visible everywhere. This setting has a special charm — here the theater takes shape before it appears before the audience.
Closer to the stage are the dressing rooms, where masters help artists prepare for the performance. Here, the approach of going on stage is palpable, and the usual work before the mirror becomes part of the special theatrical atmosphere.
The empty hall allows one to examine its details and feel the scale of the space that will soon be filled with artists, music, and spectators.
Daily ballet classes reveal what usually remains outside the performance. In the rehearsal hall, dancers repeat movements again and again and work on technique. Here it becomes clearer how much daily effort lies behind the ease the audience sees on stage.
The backstage of the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater offers a view of the theater beyond the usual audience experience. Behind every performance is the daily work of a large team. Here, professional traditions are preserved and new productions are prepared, continuing the theater's history season after season. Getting to know this side of its life gives reason to return to the auditorium and look more closely at the details that make up each performance.