Kochari

What it is

Kochari is a group dance, most often danced in a circle. Dancers stand side by side and hold each other's hands. The music can be moderate or fast, and the mood is vigorous rather than gentle. The dance calls for squatting low, for a movement in which a dancer butts at an imagined opponent, and for high jumps. The writer John Blacking, quoted in accounts of the dance, called it group dancing in which the dancers imitate jumping goats. Armenian dancers describe it as meant to look intimidating. Men and women both take part, and every region of the Armenian Highlands once had its own version, with its own steps and its own music.

Origins and history

Kochari belongs to the Armenian Highlands. Armenians have danced it for more than a thousand years, and in Armenia it spread to the eastern part of the country after the Armenian genocide. UNESCO inscribed the Armenian form in 2017 as Kochari, traditional group dance, with Armenia named as the state party. Other peoples living alongside Armenians keep their own forms of the same dance: Assyrians, Azerbaijanis and Pontic Greeks. In November 2018 UNESCO put kochari, together with the dance tenzere, on its list of intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, as versions of the Yalli dance.

Names and meanings

The name is explained differently in each language that uses it. In Armenian, gudj or goudj means knee, and ari means come, so kochari is often understood as knee-come. In Azerbaijani Turkish, köç means to move, and köçəri works as both a noun and an adjective for nomad and nomadic, a word that carries the sense of a nomad's travelling. In Pontic Greek, kótsari joins kótsi, meaning heel, with airo, to raise: raising the heel. The Greeks who use that name treat the heel as the part of the foot a dancer leans on most.

Beyond Armenia

Kochari is not kept by Armenians alone. Assyrians and Pontic Greeks dance their own versions, and so do Azerbaijanis, who call it köçəri. In Azerbaijan it is played in the Nakhchivan region, where folklore groups in Sharur, Sadarak, Kangarli, Julfa and Shahbuz perform it, and it is danced at weddings. Pontic Greeks place kótsari among their vigorous, warlike dances. Most Pontic dances move in an odd rhythm, but kótsari is in an even one, and it was first danced in a closed circle. Since 2018 the Azerbaijani form has stood on UNESCO's safeguarding list.

Today and change

Kochari is still danced, at family celebrations and by folklore groups. Modern Armenian forms add a tremolo step, in which the dancer shakes the whole body. Performances continue at weddings, which keeps the dance tied to ordinary celebration and not only to the stage. UNESCO recognition, in 2017 for the Armenian form and in 2018 for the Azerbaijani one, has brought wider attention. Each region of the Armenian Highlands keeps its own way of dancing and its own music, so there is no single fixed version of kochari today.

How Kochari is kept

Dancers join the line or circle, standing side by side with hands linked, and the music sets a pace that can be moderate or fast. The steps include squatting low, a forward butt at an imagined opponent, and high jumps. Newer Armenian versions add a tremolo step, in which the dancer shakes the whole body. Men and women both take part. The dance is performed at weddings and community gatherings, and folklore groups in Armenia and in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan region keep it in their programmes.

When and where

Kochari has no single date. It is danced at weddings, family celebrations and community gatherings, and folklore groups perform it whenever an occasion calls for it. In Armenian families and villages it has been part of celebrations for more than a thousand years, so it appears whenever there is something to mark.

It comes from the Armenian Highlands and is strongest in Armenia, where it spread to the eastern part of the country after the Armenian genocide. In Azerbaijan it is kept in the Nakhchivan region, in Sharur, Sadarak, Kangarli, Julfa and Shahbuz, and it is danced at weddings. Assyrian and Pontic Greek communities have their own versions, and young Armenians can be seen dancing it in Yerevan.

What Kochari means

Those who keep kochari treat it as a vigorous, even warlike dance, and Armenian dancers describe it as meant to look intimidating. The Azerbaijani name ties it to the travelling of nomads, the Pontic Greek name to raising the heel, and the Armenian name to the knee, so the words themselves carry the motion. It is danced by men and women together and at weddings, which places it in shared celebration as well as on stage.

Questions people ask about Kochari

See also

Georgian polyphonic singingSeveral voices at once, sung without instruments at Georgian feasts and weddingsHoronLine dances of Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast, danced with shaking shouldersHalayA traditional line and circle folk dance kept across Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, and Syria.AgbadzaAn Ewe music and dance, born of war songs and kept for funerals, weddings and festivals

Good reading and sources

• Kochari, traditional group danceUNESCO, Heritage listing
• Kochari, traditional group danceUNESCO, Article

• Kochari on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.