Polka—

There is some evidence that in 1822, a Czechoslovakian poet named Celakovsky wrote a dance named the "Cracoviacs" that was almost identical to the Polka (Giordano, vol. 1, p.168, 2007), but the popular story is that in 1830, Anna Slezak, a little girl of Bohemia, was humming, and skipping to her tune, when a local schoolmaster happened by and wrote down the tune and the steps. The other village girls learned the "dance," and soon it was being danced in Prague, where they called it the Polka, from the Bohemian pulka, which means half, and refers to the half step or closing step that was part of the major figure. Yet another story makes it a Czech servant girl, Anna Chadimova, but the Polka was being danced in Vienna in 1839, in Paris in 1840, in London in 1843. In the United States, Professor L. De. G. Brookes, ballet master at the National Theater, NY, and Miss Mary Ann Gammon danced the Polka in May, 1844. It was one of the first of the "round" dances."

For a time, the Polka was extremely popular, even a craze. In 1844, the dancing master Coulon reported on a ball given by the Duke of Wellington in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday:

The Polka furore rose to such a pitch as to be danced, we are told, six times during the evening. Now this will not do. In our opinion the Polka, as an addition to the various amusements of a ball, stands certainly without parallel: still it ought by no means to detract from the usual amusements by superseding all other dances. (quoted in Clarke & Crisp, 1981)

The Johann Strausses, elder and younger, are well known for their Waltzes, but they wrote wonderful Polkas, too, with "the intimacy of the waltz and the vivacity of the Irish jig." (Illustrated London News, 1844).

Today, we Polka in our Two Step rhythm. It is fast and skipping, with lots of turning and even childish joy. The first round dance Polka that Meredith and I learned was Street Fair, a phase II Two Step, written by Merola in 1972.

(For additional figures, see the Two Step page.)