The Kochari

This is the village dance done by the old men who rise slowly to shuffle one behind the next. Forward and backward the dancers bounce in a reel that gets livelier quickening each step. The dancers grow younger, younger as they move like climbers climbing toward their youth, shuffling off years until the younger men join in. Once reserved for males this country dance of slide-step and stamping is joined by women now, not so much in defiance as savoring what rebounds.