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Orteke - traditional performing art in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿; dance, puppet and music... Orteke is an indigenous Kazakh performing art that combines theatre, music and puppetry. This folk art entails a music performance with a dombyra, a traditional two-stringed instrument and a dance performed by a wooden puppet. Attached to the surface of a traditional drum with a metal rod, a wooden puppet in the shape of a mountain goat is connected to the fingers of a musician by one or several strings. As the musician strikes their fingers to play the dombyra, the puppet comes to life, hopping in sync with the music while tapping a rhythmic beat on the drum. Some experts can play with three or more puppets at a time. This performance, fascinating for its simplicity, is enjoyed by children and adults alike. It is primarily transmitted within communities and through apprenticeships, although the Kokil Musical College in Almaty has also established a team of researchers dedicated to the art. The biennial Orteke international festivals and regional puppet art competitions are other platforms for the learning and sharing of skills and experience between puppet artists from Kazakhstan and neighbouring countries. An important part of the region’s folk heritage and identity, Orteke also serves as a communication tool between adults and children. The tradition of the orteke may go back several thousands of years. The word “orteke” derives from “or”, ditch, hole or trap, and “teke”, goat. Orteke are carved figures of a horned mountain goat mounted on stands, manipulated by a puppeteer using slender sticks and strings attached to the puppets’ wooden parts. The orteke are attached by threads to the fingers of the puppeteer-musician playing the dombra (a wooden plucked instrument with two strings) and usually performed on a Kazakh perussion instrument, the daulpaz (dauyilpaz, bass drum), “which has a built­in metal core for the fastening of the body of the goat. From below, the core is connected to a foot of the performer and thus is manipulated by him. Simultaneously, dombra performer can operate three animals (with his two hands and a foot), separately or at the same time.” The goat dances on its drum plinth, creating a percussive rhythm to accompany the string music of the dombra. The goat puppet is also found in neighbouring countries.  Older Kazakhs today have childhood memories of relatively simple performances with puppets and musical instruments, such as these 1927 reminiscences of a young girl during the pre-Soviet period: “There were people playing the instrument, dombra, and at the end of the dombra they placed the puppet made of straw. And when they played, the puppet began to jump and dance. It was fun for the children. These people were invited to the houses to entertain children, and more often they entertained people in the bazaars. It was very popular, especially among the children …Then the shadow theatre was very popular because there was no electricity and the only entertainment was showing different animals on the wall.” The Kazakh puppetry and musical tradition called the Orteke is today experiencing a “comeback”, thanks to artists, academics, the Kazakh government, and the public as part of Kazakhs search for a national identity. Originally made by tribal artist from south-west Kazakhstan, Orteke was all but forgotten; it only survived because a few master craftsmen and puppeteers preserved the tradition and passed it on. Today, traditional Orteke has found new audiences. The government-funded Orteke 2010 puppet festival, held in the country’s capital, Almaty, was devoted to the Orteke. Performers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan attended the 2010 festival. Some of the Orteke performers were very young, as young as five years old. 🎥© dala_sound #archaeohistories