The Astonishing Astana Ballet Opens Window to Kazakhstan Cuisine

(Gerry Furth-Sides, photo courtesy of the Astana Ballet Theatre) The Astana Ballet Theater has toured all over the world with performances in almost every major city, and recently premiered on the West Coast.

For example,  what would we be eating if we were to be in Kazakhstan dining before a performance?  Foods for high energy and a lot of movement  – unlike the “calorie crazy” with anything starchy former Cirque du Soleil troupe’s former diet and their much more trendy, vegetarian based current one.

Kazakh cuisine is traditionally is focused on mutton (sheep) and horse meat, plus milk products. For hundreds of years, Kazakhs were herders who raised fat-tailed sheep, Bactrian camels, and horses, relying on these animals for transportation, clothing, and food.  The nomadic way of list has influenced cooking techniques and major ingredients, with one outstanding one being preservation that include salting and drying meat, along with a preference for sour milk.   Meat in various forms, and primarily boiled, then served in large pieces, is traditional.  Kazakhs cared so much for their horses, especially for horses which they intended to slaughter, they are known to keep them apart from other animals and feed them so much they had difficulty moving—keeping them separate from other animals and feeding them so much that they often became so fat they had difficulty moving.

Checking through lists it seems that most agree on these top ten.  All reflect the nomadic lifestyle and the requirement of food for a lot of energy because of the climate.  Meat is dominant; vegetarianism just about non-existent.  Some dishes may appear extraordinary or even strange, but everything is worth trying at least once.

1. Beshbarmak: The national dish consists of boiled horse meat or mutton with large noodles and onions. Traditionally beshbarmak is served on a common platter and eaten with fingers  and the name translates to “five fingers”).   Similar to Indian custom, the family and guests sit on the floor around a low-lying table called dastarkhan.

Kazy   The meat of this traditional sausage made from the rib meat of horses is stuffed inside the animal’s intestines and then usually dried or smoked before it is boiled for consumption. Kazy is an important part of any celebratory meal.

Kuyrdak Kuyrdak is a national dish made from cow’s, horse’s or sheep’s chopped heart, liver, kidneys boiled in oil, and served with onion and pepper.

Sorpa Sorpa is a traditional hot broth usually drunk after eating beshbarmak.   This is often served with Kurt, a type of cheese made from dehydrated sour cream by forming small balls and letting it dry. Kurt was historically useful for long treks on horseback across the steppe.

Airan is an almost liquid yogurt prepared from fermented cow’s milk.

Known for it’s delicious flavor,  Kumys, a dairy product made from mare’s milk often fermented in big skin bags for as many as several days has alcohol content. Shubat Shubat is camel’s milk made in the same way as kumys, and both are known to have wonderful health properties.

Baursaks, the popularKazakh national dish for celebratory occasions made from spherical or triangular pieces of dough and fried in oil can be prepared sweet or not. Sometimes it is described as a type of Asian doughnuts.  The smell of the oil and the frying baursak floats high into the sky so that your dead loved ones can feed on the aroma and enjoy them with you. Shelpek Shelpek is a flat cake made in the same way as baursaks.

Though a flowy back curtain is the entire set on tour, compared to the state of the art technical one in Kazakhstan, it shows off the bold, fluid virtuosity of the dancers.  It is all the more remarkable that the females modern ballet dancers are often on point as naturally as if they were barefoot .

The program  of classic and modern dance, with original compositions by renowned choreographers, includes Astana Ballet’s  newest presentation: MASTERPIECES. 

The heart-stopping The Heritage of the Great Steppe Kazakh folk dance, full of thunderous music and pounding artistic imagery is alone worth the price of admission (see below).  A more regal, earthy segment is danced by female dancers (above).  

Three neoclassical one-act ballets hold two inspired pieces by Brazilian choreographer Ricardo Amarante: Love Fear Loss, a ballet set to songs by that focuses on Edith Piaf’s remarkable life story; and A Fuego Lento, a ballet that uses the rhythms of a Samba and Tango to tell a passionate story about the flush of first love.  The unique, often extreme undulating movements of the dancers that seem to be a signature of this tour, compared to the much more rigid, straight lines of the tango dance make for an exhilarating experience!

The final one-act , Love’s Lost Idols, is by the renowned New York-based choreographer Nicolo Fonte, who lived up to his reputation of having a “daring and original approach to dance”