Gulvira Kurbanova Greatest Ballet Performance I Ever Saw Amazing Inspirational Story Heart & Courage

40 years ago, in the final game of the NBA championships, maybe the most inspirational moment in basketball history was the New York Knicks, Willis Reed, stepping onto the basketball court, despite a very serious injury and a wrapped up leg. Although, he only played a few minutes after an injection to dull his pain, his presence destroyed the mind set of the Los Angeles Lakers and led to a convincing victory and the first ever NBA championship for his New York Knicks.
In the many years that I have seen great ballet performances, the final round of the 2010 Korea International Ballet Competition is reminiscent of that NBA championship final game. The 2010 Korea International Ballet Competition showed me a remarkable ballerina, Gulvira Kurbanova, from Kazakhstan, which as long as I live, I will always remember what she did in the final round of this competition. Gulvira Kurbanova showed the same heart, determination and courage to step on the stage for the Le Corsaire pas de deux as Willis Reed did in 1970.
After she had finished her first round Don Quixote pas de deux, the next day, Gulvira severely injured her left knee. She was unable to take class after that and had her knee wrapped up, like Willis Reed's leg in 1970, and the swelling in her knee was easy to see.
We begin with her second round performance which was shown a few nights ago. I will show a few sections of that performance again. For someone struggling to walk, any type of dancing, even in a contemporary ballet is amazing and shows what a remarkable person, Gulvira Kurbanova is.
KEEP AN EYE ON HER WRAPPED LEFT KNEE
In the final round, Gulvira was scheduled to perform a very difficult Le Corsaire pas de deux, which is difficult enough on two perfect legs and impossible on a defective leg. The day before the final round, Gulvira tried fouettes and immediately hit the floor in agonizing pain and attempted fouettes off her good leg to expected failure.
Now we come to the afternoon rehearsal, a few hours before her final round performance. The video will tell the story and look at that left knee in the beginning. Also, look at her choice of variation, the very difficult Gamzatti variation, requiring many jumps pushing off of that weak left leg. As you will see, she did not attempt one strong jump in fear of hurting her leg more. When performance time came, she would have to go all out, pushing off of that weak leg to do her many grand jete jumps.
A few hours later came her moment of glory or disaster. Prior to the actual final round competition, Gulvira was forced to take an injection in her knee to ease the pain and hopefully, help her perform on that fragile leg. This is also reminiscent of Willis Reed getting an injection in his leg to make his remarkable entrance onto the basketball court in 1970.
Here is what happened to Gulvira.
With all that I have witnessed, this is the greatest ballet performance that I have ever seen and if any dancer deserved a grand prize award, Gulvira Kurbanova would have gotten my vote for what is in her great heart. It is her great heart that inspired her partner, Nurlan Konokbaev, to come from behind in the final round and win his first ever gold medal, just as Willis Reed inspired the Knicks to their first NBA Championship, 40 years ago.
Earlier this year, I had never heard of the Korea International Ballet Competition until a friend told me about it. In the same way, I had never heard about YouTube until a friend told me about it over 2 years ago,and YouTube has blessed me with many unexpected friends. I came to Korea, hoping to strengthen two potential friendships. One was a success and the other one a disastrous failure. However, I developed several very important friendships that will enrich my life in the future.
In conclusion, not known to me when I was in Korea, is that God had a specific plan for me in Korea and that was to witness Gulvira Kurbanova and tell the ballet world about this amazing ballerina, whose heart of gold demonstrates to all girls wanting to be ballerinas, that if you have the determination, nothing is impossible. She proves that you can never give up.
I thank God and my Lord and Savior, Jesus, for being able to witness and tell the story of Ballerina Gulvira Kurbanova.

A side note not in the video
Gulvira did not dance in both gala performances due to her knee injury. She gave everything she had in the final round.

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• Kurbanova
• 2010
• Korea
• International
• Ballet
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• Corsaire
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• Quixote
• Willis
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• Kazakhstan
• Nurlan
• Konokbaev

[casualsharpiee]

I was wincing the whole time. It looked so painful.

[HippieRuda]

Yes, I personally don't think it was such a good choice she made :/ too risky

[lovedove203]

i used to ask my teacher why we had to learn how to do spins and stuf on both legs- this shut me up

[isaah1307]

@KyooHeeChoi Tnx, I lov this song too

[KyooHeeChoi]

@isaah1307 The name of the song they're dancing to is Song from a Secret Garden :) One of my favorites.

[Indiahicks23]

@casualsharpiee I AGREE.WAS I ALSO.

[Indiahicks23]

I admire her dertermination but I dont admire being stubborn against doctors orders.AS I can see her knee gets MORE AND MORE SWOLLEN. If MY ARCHES OR KNEE DONT FEEL RIGHT I GO TO THE DOCTOR AND TAKE his strong advice not scrw up a future career.But over all shes an amazing dancing not cause she has pretty feet ethier.

[ferraribeng]

@kimmois1

You've got a point. Perhaps the doctor should strongly advise her against doing. Maybe the doctor had warned her that it was going to destory her carreer before it began. We really do not know what she was thinking. Maybe she rather it be her last performance than never. That's the human fighting spirit. I don't think stupidity should be encouraged, but we should learn to be persistence and not give up easily.

[LimeGirl08]

Didn't like this. I feel sorry for the people who exalt martyrdom as a virtue. If she's hurt she shouldn't be performing. Period. Instead, she does the "I-am-so-strong-why-me" performance. Of course she looks like she has talent and it's very unfortunate what happened to her, but this is not right in my opinion.

[MsAlone4now]

Daced 40+ yrs ago & had knee surgery reecnt all I can say is OUCH! She def had determination,She must have a fairly high pain tolerance too don' tno what they injected into her knee but she pulled it off, If I didn't no the details, I prob wouldn't have noticed she was injured.Yes she made a choice to continue & hope didn't ruin her career but the videographer wasn't encouraging the dance, he/she to wanted to show the excruciating work that goes into dance. Thanks for the pst

[AnimePonyDragon]

She is one awesome dancer, and so is her partner. But the audience kept talking and clapping in the middle all the time, which I find is so rude. But apart from that this is amazing!