Kara Jorga

The word "kara" has different meanings in Kazakh, starting from black to simple, strong or resistant. "Jorga" means the ambling pace of a horse's walk. Thus, it could be translated both as strong pacer and black pacer. Kara Jorga horses are mostly used for long journeys. Horses were treated as a totemic animal among Kazakhs and proto-Kazakh Turkic tribes. The dance also has another name, such as "buwıyn biyi" (dance of joints), because it is based on rhythmic moves of shoulder and hand joints. ==History==

Kara Jorga like other nomadic dances related to traditional pastoral culture, was used during Kazakh festivals and shamanic rituals before the Islamic period. Some elements of Kara Jorga displayed in 1933 in Almaty on a ballet stage by Ali Ardobus. A full dance was staged in the Kazakh Drama Theatre during the Kazakh Enlik-Kebek poem play in 1936. Later, prominent Kazakh-Soviet choreographers Dauren Abirov, Aubakir Ismailov and Sara Zhienkulova developed staged dances on the basis of recorded or observed Kazakh folk dances, such as Kara Jorga. Thus, in Kazakhstan, Kara Jorga was preserved as a professional choreographic art, while Kazakhs in China have been practicing it casually during the different events as a folk dance. Kara Jorga became popular in Kazakhstan in the 2000s with the rise of national identity. It also turned into a popular cultural marker of the Kazakh diaspora. In 2013, Kara Jorga dance was nominated for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. ==External links==