In Armenian, Kochari literally means "knee-come". Գուճ means "knee" and արի means "come".
In Azerbaijani, "köç" means "moving" 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" meaning "heel" 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.
In Kurdish, the word for nomads is Koçer, thus the name Koçerî makes it "Nomadian".
Versions
describes Kochari as follows:
Armenian
Armenians have been dancing Kochari for over a thousand years. The dance is danced to a 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.
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 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. 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.
Kurdish Koçerî
Koçerî is a special form of the "Dilan", "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.
Pontic Greek 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, 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.
