Van | Ovsanna (dance)

23/03/26 (Last modified 23/03/26)

This section of our website aims to document and share performances of various traditional Armenian dances that have been preserved by Diasporan communities in the United States. To this end, Houshamadyan is partnering and collaborating with a group of Armenian dance experts who have produced appropriate dance notations for documentation. This group consists of Carolyn Rapkievian (of Bar Harbor, Maine), Susan and Gary Lind-Sinanian (of Watertown, Massachusetts), Tom Bozigian (of Los Angeles, California), and Robert Haroutunian (Sunyside, NY).

Van: the Dominican fathers’ house (Source: Henry Binder, Au Kurdistan, en Mésopotamie et en Perse, Paris, 1887)

A scene from the town of Van (Source: C.F. Lehmann-Haupt, Armenien Einst und Jetzt, Berlin/Leipzig, 1926)

Ovsanna is a traditional dance from the Shadakh region of Vasbouragan/Van. The dance continues to be performed within the Armenian community of Detroit, Michigan.

The dance was transmitted to the United States through Yenovk Kazarian of Detroit, father of clarinetist and bandleader Hachig Kazarian. Yenovk, who was born in Van, was the son of Khachig Kazarian, a noted authority on the regional dances of Vasbouragan.

According to Yenovk, the name of the dance refers to a Kurdish woman. Tom Bozigian learned the dance from Yenovk Kazarian, while Gary Lind-Sinanian later learned it from Kazar Kazarian, Hachig’s brother.