Polka

The polka^[1] is a dance for couples which originated in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). It was a "craze" in Europe for a time in the mid to late 19th century.^[2][3] and in the United States.^[4][5] The craze spread in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of which the Czechs were part.

The dance is done with a one-two-three-hop style:^[6] The dance soon spread to London and was introduced to America in 1844. It remained a popular ballroom dance until the late 19th century.

1. ↑ 1844 according to Shorter OED, vol 2, p1537.
2. ↑ Franks A.H. Social dance in the nineteenth century: a short history, p133 et seq.
3. ↑ Richardson P.J.S. 1960. The social dances of the 19th century, chapter 8, p81, and noted in later chapters.
4. ↑ Aldrich, Elizabeth 1991. From the ballroom to hell: grace and folly in nineteenth-century dance. Northeastern University Press. Evanston, Illinois. p190: directions for performing the polka.
5. ↑ Blatter, Alfred 2007. Revisiting music theory: a guide to the practice, p28. ISBN 0-415-97440-2.
6. ↑ "Polkamania ... has raged very fiercely amongst us, indeed all over London this year". Letter by E.J.Knox, 14 August 1844: quoted in A.E. Blake London 1909. Memoirs of a Vanished Generation ..., London 1909 viii, 217.