Kochari | |
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![]() Young Armenians dancing kochari in Yerevan | |
Country | Armenia |
Domains | Folk dance |
Reference | 1295 |
Region | Europe and North America |
Inscription history | |
Inscription | 2017 (12th session) |
Kochari (Armenian: Քոչարի, romanized: K’očari, Azerbaijani: Köçəri, Greek: Κότσαρι, romanized: Kόtsari, Kurdish: Koçerî, Turkish: Koçari) is a folk dance originating in the Armenian Highlands.[citation needed] It is performed today by Armenians,[1][2][3] Assyrians,[4] Azerbaijanis[5][6] and Turks, Kurds, and Pontic Greeks.[7] 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.[8]
Etymology
- In Armenian, "Kochari" literally means "knee-come". Գուճ (gudj or goudj) means "knee" and արի (ari) means "come".[9]
- In Azerbaijani Turkish, "köç" means "to move" 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] Likewise, Kurdish "koçer" means "nomad," and thus the term "Koçerî" means "nomadic,"[citation needed] which was borrowed from Turkish.[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 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.[15]
Azerbaijani
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 or her hand. This stick is not to punish the dancers but it has importance in dancing.[16]
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][6]
Kurdish Koçerî
Koçerî is a special form of the "Dilan", "Delîlo", or "Şêxanî" Kurdish dance. "Koçerî" means "nomadic" in Kurdish, where "koçer" means nomad, thus the name used by Kurds means "nomads' dance". As the name suggests, it is more common among Kurdish nomads.[citation needed]
Pontic Greek Kόtsari
The Pontic Greeks and Armenians have many vigorous warlike dances such as the Kochari.[18] In the Pontic dialect, it is written as Κότσαρι.
Unlike most Pontic dances, the Kotsari is in an even rhythm (2
4), originally danced in a closed circle.[19] 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 is 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.[citation needed]
See also
- Kalamatianos
- Tsamiko
- Sirtaki
- Omal
- Horon
- Khigga
- An Dro
- Tamzara
- Hora
- Dabke
- Halay
- Assyrian folk dance
- Faroese dance
Gallery
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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. 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.
- ^ KÖÇ
- ^ KÖÇƏRİ
- ^ "Koçer Ne Demek? - Türkçe Kelime Anlamı". Türkçe Ne Demek. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
- ^ Blacking, John (1979). The Performing Arts: Music and Dance. 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.
- ^ a b "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.
External links
- Kochari music - Armenian sample; Assyrian sample; Archived 2007-08-09 at the Wayback Machine Pontic sample;Turkish sample
- Kochari dance - UNESCO video