From: http://www.dance.demon.co.uk/AGC/Articles/ArmenianDance.html.
In the 1940s and 50s, second- and third-generation Armenian-Americans began to create a whole new repertoire of dances to replace what had been lost in the diaspora, by combining traditional and newly choreographed steps with older folk melodies and songs. A good example is Eench Eemanaee, also known as the Armenian Misirlou. It evolved from a combination of the Greek Misirlou which was enormously popular in the USA in the 1950s, and the traditional Armenian dance Lorke Lorke (a.k.a. Sirdes, 'my heart'), which was brought from Daron, near Lake Van. The words to Eench Eemanaee, like many Armenian songs, tell a story of lost love as a metaphor for the lost homeland: 'From the very day that you left, I became bitter toward life / And even the flowers cried and were sad with me / If only, my love, you had returned...' The music to these 'new' dances is often characteristically 'bright' as a result of having been recorded in recent decades by Armenian-American orchestras, and they nearly always go to the right, a sign that they are dances of celebration. (Dances that move principally to the left tend to be more melancholy, according to Tineke van Geel.) Siroon Aghchig (Sweet Girl), Ambee Dageets (Armenian Turn), and Guhneega are some popular dances recreated in the diaspora.