VALENCIA, Spain – Kazakhstan’s Astana Opera Ballet Company performed in Spain for the first time on Saturday, presenting Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” at Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts in Valencia.

The music was provided by the orchestra of the Valencian Community.

“The musicians in Valencia are perfect, very professional and of a very high standard,” the artistic director of the Astana company, Altynai Asylmuratova, told EFE, adding that the fusion of ballet and music between Spain and Kazakhstan “will instill such emotion in our audiences.”

“Swan Lake” premiered in 1877 as a work commissioned by Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. Since then there have been thousands of interpretations of this classic, which finds in the Kazakh production a new artistic presentation.

“This work is a symbol. When someone thinks of a ballet, it’s always this one,” Altynai said. “We are proud to preserve the legacy of this work, and with this performance it’s what we’ve tried to leave with Spain.”

During the show, the audience had the chance to discover Olzhas Tarlanov, the principal male dancer of the Astana Opera Ballet, who, after displaying his talent with some of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies, such as the one in Munich, he returned home to Kazakhstan several years ago.

“I know that Spanish audiences have a lot of energy, they’re very warm and I’m pleased to be able to dance for them,” Tarlanov said after coming offstage.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev founded in 2013 this company made up entirely by dancers of the Central Asian nation, and the current production of “Swan Lake” has had the support of the Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Sport.

Tarlanov was accompanied onstage by the company’s prima ballerina, Aigerim Beketayeva, who said that “Swan Lake” is her favorite work.

The Astana Opera Ballet has sold every ticket for all five scheduled performances in Valencia.