FROM FOLK TRADITION TO CONTEMPORARY STAGE: REIMAGINING CENTRAL ASIAN DANCE THROUGH CHOREOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION

Abstract

Central Asian folk dance represents a significant component of the region's intangible cultural heritage, preserving collective memory, cultural identity, and embodied knowledge through movement traditions transmitted across generations. While existing scholarship has extensively documented regional dance vocabularies, ritual practices, and ethnographic characteristics, comparatively limited attention has been devoted to the ways contemporary choreography may reinterpret these traditions while maintaining meaningful connections to their cultural origins. This article examines the relationship between folk dance preservation and contemporary choreographic interpretation, arguing that these approaches should be understood as complementary rather than oppositional practices.Drawing upon interdisciplinary scholarship in dance studies, performance theory, and cultural heritage research, the study first explores the historical role of Central Asian folk dance as an embodied archive of nomadic cultural experience. It then examines contemporary choreographic approaches that move beyond reconstruction toward creative reinterpretation, emphasizing embodiment, symbolic movement, and artistic inquiry as mechanisms for sustaining living cultural traditions. Finally, the article presents Saks in Movement as a practice-based case study illustrating how principles derived from Central Asian nomadic culture may be translated into contemporary choreographic practice without replicating historical movement forms. Through analysis of symbolic gestures, movement principles, and choreographic applications, the study demonstrates how reinterpretation may contribute to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage while encouraging artistic innovation.The article argues that contemporary choreography does not diminish the cultural significance of folk dance; rather, it extends its relevance by creating new embodied forms through which traditional knowledge may continue to evolve. By positioning reinterpretation as a strategy of cultural continuity rather than cultural replacement, this research contributes to ongoing discussions concerning dance heritage, embodied memory, choreographic authorship, and the preservation of traditional movement practices within contemporary performance