State Academic Dance Ensemble 'Kabardinka' was established in 1933. ‘Kabardinka’ was recognized as ‘National Treasure of the Circassian Nation’ by the International Circassian Association (ICA) in October 2013. Kabardinka is considered one of the finest dance troupes in the Caucasus, and has performed in the Russian Federation and abroad. Its repertoire includes many traditional dances with developed choreographs. Under Auladin Dumanishev, the chief choreographer in 1990s, Kabardinka also came to abandon the idea of incorporating dance forms from across the Caucasus and focused instead on dances that were cast as quintessentially Circassian. The ensemble also engaged in its own version of ethnographic categorization, elaborating the distinctions between regional subgroups from Greater Kabardia, Lesser Kabardia, the Kabardians of Mozdok, and the Bzhedug, Shapsug, and Ubykh groups of western Circassia.