Polka
Polka
Origin: Bohemia. The polka is a Central European dance of bohemian folk origin. It is believed that polka was invented by a peasant girl, Anna Slezak, in 1834 and witnessed by music teacher Joseph Neruba. Anna danced on the folk song “Strycek Nimra Koupil Simla (Uncle Nimra brought a white horse).” The little girl Anna named her quick and lively steps ‘Madera’.
While seeing the possibilities of the improved dance style and the possibility of making money, Neruba took it to Prague in 1835, where it was supposedly dubbed the pulka (meaning a half,) and later on went to Vienna in 1839 by a music band from Prague under the leadership of Pergier.
The polka was the second ‘closed position’ couples dance to be introduced to the world, with the first being waltz. The dance was first introduced into the ballrooms of France in 1843.
Yangko
Origin: China. The Yangko is a folk dance of China and a popular part of their culture. It involves swaying of the body to certain rhythms. It dates back a thousand years and is usually performed in the Lantern Festival.
Yangko has changed since its inception and the one that we see today started in the late 1940s.
Cossack (Also gopak/hopak)
Origin: Ukraine. Hopak means ‘to leap and stamp one’s feet.’ It is considered the official dance of Ukraine and is composed of visually amazing acrobatic feats. Men competitively improvise steps, high leaps, squatting kicks, stretches on the ground and in the air, various spins and turns, while female movements are quick steps, bends, simple steps, sway, clap or circle.
During the 16th century, the hopak started as a male dance at the Zaporozhian Sich, Ukraine, and gradually spread throughout the country. As it spread, it became transformed into a group dance performed by couples with males retaining the lead role. It has several variants: a solo dance, a group and couple dance, and in Western Ukraine it is performed as a circular dance called hopak-kolo. Its charm and attractiveness lie in the hopak’s freedom of improvisation, which allows individual dancers to display their talents within a larger dance group.
Ballet
Origin: Italy — Russia. Ballet is a performance dance and originated in Italy during the 15th century. It developed in France and Russia, and evolved from performance dance to concert dance. The style is aesthetic in nature but it is a very complicated form of dancing. What makes the ballet different from others is that it involves ‘pointe work’, (to stand on the tip of the toe) perfect flow, focussed and very precise acrobatic movements.
The difficulty lies in the ‘pointe’ which needs months, and sometimes years, of practice to reach the perfect balance to stand on the toes.
Tap dance
Origin: Fused (Irish, African, American, Juba). You may have seen tap dance in cartoons and movies when dancers follow a rhythm by taping their shoes on the floor. Tap dance is characterised by a tapping sound that is created from metal plates attached to both the toe and the heel of the shoe. These metal plates, when tapped against a hard surface, create a percussive sound and as such the dancers are considered to be musicians for their own movement. The dance requires special shoes for tapping.
Tap dance has roots in African-American dancing such as the juba dance, English Lancashire clog dancing, and probably most notably Irish step dancing.
Published in Dawn, Young World, September 17th, 2016