Kochari
Kochari (Armenian: Քոչարի, Greek: Κότσαρι Kotsari, Kurdish: Koçerî), is a folk dance, danced today by Armenians, Pontic Greeks, Assyrians, and Kurds.
Kochari is a type of dance, not a concrete single dance. Each region/area in the Armenian highland had its own Kochari, with its unique way/flavour of both dancing and music/tune. The most ancient types of Kochari come from Armenia and Western Armenia.
"Haleh" or "Yalli",[1] a dance common to Azerbaijanis, Assyrians, and Kurds has different forms of Kochari.[1]
"Govand" is also part of this family of dances.
Etymology
- In Armenian, Kochari literally means "knee-come". Koch means "knee" and ari means "come".
- In Pontic Greek, the 'kotsi' refers to the heel of the foot and the Greeks consider the heel to be the main part of the foot which the dancer uses. The Pontic Greek term for limp is 'kotso' and the Pontic Greek kochari is considered to contain a number of limps.
- In Kurdish, the word for nomads is Koçer, thus the name Koçerî makes it "Nomadian" (Nomadian dance).[2]
In Turkic Languages köç- werb root means "to migtare" > köç (name) means "migration" > köçer means "migrant, nomad" > köçeri means "nomadic". Turkic köç > loan in Persian "koç", and Turkic köçer > loan to Kurdish "koçer" etc.
Versions
John Blacking, describes Kochari as,
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.[3]
Armenian
Armenians have been dancing Kochari for over a thousand years.[4] The dance is danced to a 2/4 rhythm. Dancers form a closed circle, putting their hands on each other's shoulders. This may symbolize the alienation that this minority community felt at the time of the dance's birth.
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 Armenians were driven out of Anatolia because of the genocide caused by Turkey. This movement is appropriate for its name, which in various Turkish languages signifies "nomad"[5]
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.[6]
Kurdish Koçerî
Koçerî is a special form of the "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.
Koçer is came from < Turkic köçer "migrant, nomad" < köç- "to migrate"
Pontic Greek kotsari
The Pontic Greeks[7] and Armenians have many vigorous warlike dances such as the Kochari.
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.
Kochai
Kochai - Pashtun nomadic style done in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
External links
- Kochari music - Pontic sample´ Armenian sample, Assyrian sample, Turkish sample
- Kochari dance - Pontic variant, Azeri variant, Armenian variant
- Kotchari (Κότσαρι) )
References
- ^ a b Astaire to Zopy-Zopy by Robert Gottlieb (New York Times)
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.
- ^ http://lexin.nada.kth.se/lexin/#searchinfo=from,swe_kmr,Ko%C3%A7er;
- ^ Blacking, John (1979). The Performing Arts: Music and Dance. p. 71.
- ^ Кочари // Музыкальный энциклопедический словарь / Ю.В. Келдыш, М.Г. Арановский, Л.З.Корабельникова. — Советская энциклопедия, 1990. — С. 275.
- ^ {{ | author = | authorlink = | coauthors = | date = | url = http://www.nakhchivan.az/portal-en/mil-reqs.htm | title = The national dancings | work = | publisher = nakhchivan.az | accessdate = 2009-06-06 | description = National dances on the official web-cite of Nakhchivan AR }}
- ^ "The national dancings". nakhchivan.az. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help); Unknown parameter|description=ignored (help) - ^ Greece - Page 67 by Paul Hellander, Kate Armstrong, Michael Clark, Des Hannigan, Victoria Kyriakopoulos, Miriam Raphael, Andrew Ston