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Kochari, traditional group dance
Kochari, traditional group dance
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
Country	Armenia
Domains	Folk dance
Reference	01295
Region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	2017 (12th session)
List	Representative

Kochari
	Young Armenians dancing kochari in Yerevan
Native name	Քոչարի
Genre	Folk dance; Circle dance
Origin	Armenia

Kochari (Armenian: Քոչարի, romanized: K’očari; Azerbaijani: Köçəri; Greek: Κότσαρι, romanized: Kόtsari; Turkish: Koçari) is a folk dance originating in the Armenian Highlands.^[1] It is performed today by Armenians,^[2]^[3]^[4] while variants are performed by Assyrians,^[5] Azerbaijanis,^[6]^[7] and Pontic Greeks.^[8] It is a form of circle dance.

Each region in the Armenian Highlands had its own Kochari, with its unique way of both dancing and music.^[9]

Etymology

In Armenian, "Kochari" literally means "knee-come". Գուճ (gudj or goudj) means "knee" and արի (ari) means "come".^[10]^{[page needed]}
In Azerbaijani Turkish, "köç" means "to move" used both as a verb and as a noun,^[11] 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.^[12]
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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[13]

Armenian

Armenians have been dancing Kochari for over a thousand years.^[14] 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.^[15]

Azerbaijani

Today this dancing is played in the Nakhchivan land of which Sharur, Sadarak, Kangarli, Julfa and Shahbuz regions' folklore collectives and it is performed at weddings.^[16] 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.^[17]^[7]

Pontic Greek Kόtsari

The Pontic Greeks and Armenians have many vigorous warlike dances such as the Kochari.^[18]

Unlike most Pontic dances, the Kotsari is in an even rhythm (²
₄), originally danced in a closed circle.^[19]

Gallery

Kochari dance in Aznavour Square
Kochari dance in Aznavour Square
Kochari dance in Aznavour Square

References

^ "Kochari". Bennet Pilgrimages. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
^ Elia, Anthony J. (2013). "Kochari (Old Armenian Folk Tune) for Solo Piano". Center for Digital Research and Scholarship at Columbia University. doi:10.7916/D8S75QNP. Retrieved 6 November 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ Vvedensky, Boris, ed. (1953). Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Vol. 23 (Second ed.). Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia. p. 170. КОЧАРИ — армянский народный мужской танец.
^ 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.
^ BetBasoo, Peter Pnuel (30 April 2003). "Thirty Assyrian Folk Dances" (PDF). Assyrian International News Agency. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
^ Gottlieb, Robert (26 July 1998). "Astaire to Zopy-Zopy". New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. 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.
^ ^a ^b "Yalli (Kochari, Tenzere), traditional group dances of Nakhchivan - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO". ich.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
^ "Kotsari". Pontian.info. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
^ Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia Volume 4 (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Encyclopedia Publishing. 1978. p. 476.
^ Cholakean, Hakob (2016). Ավանդական ուղղագրություն. Yerevan.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ KÖÇ
^ KÖÇƏRİ
^ Blacking, John (1979). The Performing Arts: Music and Dance. Walter de Gruyter. p. 71. ISBN 9789027978707.
^ Kochari // Music encyclopedic dictionary / Yu.V. Keldysh, M.G. Aranovsky, L.Z. Korabelnikova — Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1990. — p. 275.
^ "Kochari, traditional group dance". UNESCO. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
^ "The National Dancings". Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
^ "Intangible Heritage: Seven elements inscribed on the List in Need of Urgent Safeguarding". UNESCO. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
^ Greece - Page 67 by Paul Hellander, Kate Armstrong, Michael Clark, Des Hannigan, Victoria Kyriakopoulos, Miriam Raphael, Andrew Ston
^ "Kotchari". Pontos World. 10 November 2019.