Kochari
Folk dance of the Armenian Highlands
title: "Kochari" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["armenian-dances", "music-of-armenia", "assyrian-dances", "azerbaijani-dances", "circle-dances", "pontic-greek-dances", "folk-dances", "group-dances"] description: "Folk dance of the Armenian Highlands" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kochari" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Folk dance of the Armenian Highlands ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox dance"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Kochari |
| image | Kochari - Armenian folk dance.png |
| caption | Young Armenians dancing kochari in Yerevan |
| native_name | Քոչարի |
| genre | Folk dance |
| Circle dance | |
| origin | Armenia |
| :: |
| name = Kochari | image = Kochari - Armenian folk dance.png | alt = | caption = Young Armenians dancing kochari in Yerevan | native_name = Քոչարի | etymology = | genre = Folk dance Circle dance | instruments = | year = | origin = Armenia | ICH = Kochari, traditional group dance | State Party = Armenia | ID = 01295 | Region = ENA | Year = 2017 | Session = 12th | List = Representative
Kochari (; ; ; ) is a folk dance originating in the Armenian Highlands. It is performed today by Armenians, while variants are performed by Assyrians, Azerbaijanis, and Pontic Greeks. 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.
Etymology
- In Armenian, "Kochari" literally means "knee-come". Գուճ (gudj or goudj) means "knee" and արի (ari) means "come".
- In Azerbaijani Turkish, "köç" means "to move" used both as a verb and as a noun, 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.
- 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.
Versions
John Blacking describes Kochari as follows:
Armenian
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/A_part_of_Kochari_dance_sheet_music.svg" caption="A part of Armenian kochari"] ::
Armenians have been dancing Kochari for over a thousand years. 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.
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. 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.
Pontic Greek Kόtsari
The Pontic Greeks and Armenians have many vigorous warlike dances such as the Kochari.
Unlike most Pontic dances, the Kotsari is in an even rhythm (), originally danced in a closed circle.
Gallery
File:Armenian National Dance in Aznavour Square (1).jpg|Kochari dance in Aznavour Square File:Armenian National Dance in Aznavour Square (2).jpg|Kochari dance in Aznavour Square File:Armenian National Dance in Aznavour Square (3).jpg|Kochari dance in Aznavour Square
References
References
- (11 April 2014). "Kochari". Bennet Pilgrimages.
- Elia, Anthony J.. (2013). "Kochari (Old Armenian Folk Tune) for Solo Piano". [[Center for Digital Research and Scholarship]] at [[Columbia University]].
- (1953). "[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]". Soviet Encyclopedia.
- Yuzefovich, Victor. (1985). "Aram Khachaturyan". Sphinx Press.
- BetBasoo, Peter Pnuel. (30 April 2003). "Thirty Assyrian Folk Dances". Assyrian International News Agency.
- Gottlieb, Robert. (26 July 1998). "Astaire to Zopy-Zopy". [[New York Times]].
- "Kotsari". Pontian.info.
- (1978). "[[Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia]] Volume 4". Armenian Encyclopedia Publishing.
- Cholakean. Hakob. (2016)
- "KÖÇ".
- "KÖÇƏRİ".
- Blacking, John. (1979). "The Performing Arts: Music and Dance". Walter de Gruyter.
- Kochari // Music encyclopedic dictionary / Yu.V. Keldysh, M.G. Aranovsky, L.Z. Korabelnikova — Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1990. — p. 275.
- "Kochari, traditional group dance". UNESCO.
- "The National Dancings". Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.
- "Intangible Heritage: Seven elements inscribed on the List in Need of Urgent Safeguarding".
- "Yalli (Kochari, Tenzere), traditional group dances of Nakhchivan - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO".
- ''Greece'' - Page 67 by Paul Hellander, Kate Armstrong, Michael Clark, Des Hannigan, Victoria Kyriakopoulos, Miriam Raphael, Andrew Ston
- (10 November 2019). "Kotchari".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::