Kochari

Kochari (Armenian: Քոչարի, Azerbaijani: Köçəri, Greek: Κότσαρι Kotsari, Kurdish: Koçerî‎; Turkish: Koçari), is a folk dance, danced today by Armenians,[1][2][3] Assyrians,[4] Azerbaijanis,[5][6] Kurds, Pontic Greeks[7] and Turks. It is a form of circle dance.

Kochari
Young Armenians dancing kochari
CountryArmenia
DomainsFolk dance
Reference1295
RegionEurope and North America
Inscription history
Inscription2017 (12th session)
Kochari
CountryAzerbaijan
DomainsFolk dance
Reference1190
RegionEurope and North America
Inscription history
Inscription2018 (13th session)

Each region in the Armenian Highlands had its own Kochari, with its unique way of both dancing and music.[8] One type of Yalli, Khigga, Dilan (Halay),[5] a dance common to, Assyrians, and Kurds has different forms known as Kochari.[5]

Etymology
  • In Armenian, Kochari literally means "knee-come". Գուճ (gudj or goudj) means "knee" and արի (ari) means "come".[9]
  • In Azerbaijani, "köç" means "moving" used both as a verb and as a noun,[10] with the latter used more in the context of nomads' travelling. "Köçəri" is also both an adjective and a noun, meaning a "nomad" and "nomadic" simultaneously.[11]
  • In Pontic Greek, from the Greek "κότσι" (in Pontic Greek "κοτς") meaning "heel" (from Medieval Greek "κόττιον" meaning the same) and "αίρω" meaning "raise", all together "raising the heel", since the Greeks consider the heel to be the main part of the foot which the dancer uses.
  • In Kurdish, the word for nomads is Koçer, thus the name Koçerî makes it "Nomadian".

Versions

John Blacking describes Kochari as follows:

Group dancing, when dancers imitate jumping goats, is known as kochari. Dancers stand abreast, holding each other's hands, The tempo of the dance ranges from moderate to fast. Squatting and butting an imagined opponent are followed by high jumps.[12]

Armenian
A part of Armenian kochari

Armenians have been dancing Kochari for over a thousand years.[13] The dance is danced to a 2
4 rhythm. Dancers form a closed circle, putting their hands on each other's shoulders.

The dance is danced by both men and women and is intended to be intimidating. More modern forms of Kochari have added a "tremolo step," which involves shaking the whole body. It spread to the eastern part of Armenia after the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Kochari has been included to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding of UNESCO in 2017.[14]

Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani Kochari dance notes

It is one of the widely spread dances known as Yalli in Azerbaijan, especially in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and surrounding areas. The “Kochari” dancing, consisting of slow and rapid parts, is of three variants. In the men or women lining up one after another or one woman after one man position, a yallihead (holder) holds a stick in his / her hand. This stick isn’t to punish the dancers but factually it has a dancing importance.[15]

Today this dancing is played in the ancient Nakhchivan land of which Sharur, Sadarak, Kangarli, Julfa and Shahbuz regions’ folklore collectives and it gives a stimule to the weddings.[15] Kochari along with tenzere has been included to the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding of UNESCO in November 2018 as versions of Yalli dance.[16][6]

Kurdish Koçerî

Koçerî is a special form of the "Dilan", "Delîlo" or "Şêxanî" kurdish dance, and as the name says, it is very common and more frequently danced by the Kurdish nomads. Koçerî simply means "nomadian" in Kurdish, where "Koçer" means nomad, thus the term is used by Kurds for the dance that nomads dance. Among Kurdish nomads however, this is a specialty, not the only dance they know of.

Pontic Greek kotsari

The Pontic Greeks and Armenians have many vigorous warlike dances such as the Kochari.[17]

Unlike most Pontic dances, the Kotsari is in an even rhythm (2
4), originally danced in a closed circle. The dance is very popular today; however, it is often danced differently from the original. There is a consistent, vicious double bounce, also referred to as tremoulo. It is danced hand to shoulder and travels to the right. There are few variations which may be added to the step. It's a dance that tries to scare the viewers. At the start, it is danced by both men and women. Then, men go in front and do their figures.

See also
  • Kochari dance in Aznavour Square
  • Kochari dance in Aznavour Square
  • Kochari dance in Aznavour Square

References
  1. Elia, Anthony J. (2013). "Kochari (Old Armenian Folk Tune) for Solo Piano". Center for Digital Research and Scholarship at Columbia University. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  2. Vvedensky, Boris, ed. (1953). Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). 23 (Second ed.). Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia. p. 170. КОЧАРИ — армянский народный мужской танец.
  3. Yuzefovich, Victor (1985). Aram Khachaturyan. New York: Sphinx Press. p. 217. ISBN 9780823686582. ..and in the sixth scene one of the dances of the gladiators is very reminiscent of Kochari, the Armenian folk dance.
  4. BetBasoo, Peter Pnuel (30 April 2003). "Thirty Assyrian Folk Dances" (PDF). Assyrian International News Agency. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  5. Gottlieb, Robert (26 July 1998). "Astaire to Zopy-Zopy". New York Times. Retrieved 6 November 2013. I find it difficult to imagine someone without a predisposition to read about such matters as Azerbaijani folk dance (One type of yally has various forms known as kochari, uchayag, tello, and galadangalaya; another type is a dance mixed with games called gazy-gazy, zopy-zopy, and chopu-chopu) browsing profitably through Oxford's many hundreds of pages of such information.
  6. "Yalli (Kochari, Tenzere), traditional group dances of Nakhchivan - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO". ich.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  7. "Kotsari". Pontian.info. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  8. Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia Volume 4 (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Encyclopedia Publishing. 1978. p. 476.
  9. Cholakean, Hakob (2016). Ավանդական ուղղագրություն. Yerevan.
  10. KÖÇ
  11. KÖÇƏRİ
  12. Blacking, John (1979). The Performing Arts: Music and Dance. p. 71. ISBN 9789027978707.
  13. Kochari // Music encyclopedic dictionary / Yu.V. Keldysh, M.G. Aranovsky, L.Z. Korabelnikova — Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1990. — p. 275.
  14. "Kochari, traditional group dance". UNESCO. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  15. "The National Dancings". Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  16. "Intangible Heritage: Seven elements inscribed on the List in Need of Urgent Safeguarding". UNESCO. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  17. Greece - Page 67 by Paul Hellander, Kate Armstrong, Michael Clark, Des Hannigan, Victoria Kyriakopoulos, Miriam Raphael, Andrew Ston
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