Kotsari Dance – Pontic Greek Collection

Feliks Nikolau (Odisea Nikolaidi) from Tsikhisjvari is playing and singing a Pontic Greek dance song. The satirical verses in this version are in the local Pontic Greek, but the verses are not old folk music. The dance is called Kotsari (Κότσαρι) and belongs to a group of circle and step dances with similar name (Kochari, Köçəri, etc.) found among Armenians, Assyrians, Azeris, Turks, Kurds, Yazidis and Pontic Greeks. Originally from the area of Southeast Black Sea and Southwest Caucasus, the dance was brought to Greece during the population exchange of Christians and Muslims in 1922. The dance developed differently in the different countries. In Greece today, Kotsari is popular not only among Pontic Greeks; the Armenian version was added to the list of UNESCO cultural heritage in 2017. The influence of Pontic music from Greece and the emigration of many Georgian Pontic Greeks to Greece in the 1990s has also had an effect on the instruments used. The dominant instrument used by the Pontic Greeks in Georgia is the accordion. However, the Pontic lyra (kementze, kemence) has become popular in Georgia again. Before living in Greece for work, Nikolaidi had only heard of the lyra in stories.

Cite as: Kótsari kalón xoró – Kotsari Dance; performer: Feliks Nikolaou (Odisea Nikolaidi); camera/interview: Thede Kahl, Andreea Pascaru; transcription: Thede Kahl, Sotirios Rousiakis; translation: Sotirios Rousiakis; editor: Helmut Sandeck; retrieved from www.oeaw.ac.at/VLACH, ID: pont1253GEV0001a

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Видео Kotsari Dance – Pontic Greek Collection канала Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage