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Kochari (Template:Lang-az;Template:Lang-hy; Template:Lang-el), is a folk dance from the Armenia. In many Turkic languages, Kochari means "nomad" (Köçəri (Azeri), Gochar, Goçede).

The word is also Kurdish for nomad (kocher). Kocher-i is plural meaning "nomad-ian" (nomadian dance).

Kochari is closely related to the "Haleh" or "Yalli", a dance common to Azerbaijanians, Assyrians, and Kurds. Although there are differences the most basic form of the Armenian Halay is the same as Kochari.

"Govand" is also part of this family of dances.

It is one of the widely spread yalli(halay) in Azerbaijan, especially in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. As it is seen from its name, the creaters of this dancing are nomadic tribes. In the same time, this dancing is included to the lovely dancings of the Azerbaijani people. 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.

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.

Pontic kotsari

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 (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 fear the viewers. At the start, it is danced by both men and women. Then, men go in front and do their figures.

External links

• Kochari music - Pontic sample´ Armenian sample, Assyrian sample, Turkish sample
• Kochari dance - Pontic variant, Armenian variant, Azeri variant

References

1. ^ 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.

2. Greece - Page 67 by Paul Hellander, Kate Armstrong, Michael Clark, Des Hannigan, Victoria Kyriakopoulos, Miriam Raphael, Andrew Ston

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