Polska (dance)
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The polska is a family of music and dance forms shared by the Nordic countries: called polsk in Denmark, polska in Sweden and Finland and by several names in Norway in different regions and/or for different variants - including pols, rundom, springleik, and springar[citation needed]. The polska is almost always seen as a partner dance in 3/4-beat (help·info), although variants in 2/4 time and for two or more couples exist.
As suggested by the name, the roots of the polska are often traced back to the influence of the Polish court throughout the northern countries during the early 1600s. (Polska also means Polish in Swedish, though the pronunciation may be different: "Polish" is pronounced Paul-ska by some speakers and Poll-ska by others, while the dance is always pronounced Poll-ska.) This view is sometimes challenged by those who see earlier evidence of the musical tradition in Nordic visor or songs, that may have become grafted onto the newer foreign influences when the court dances began to filter out into the middle class and rural communities. Here and there also, a dance or a few dance melodies in triple meter have been found that may or may not be remnants of dances that the polska could have swallowed up. Another possible explanation of the origin of the word is the Czech "půlka" meaning "half" and referring to the split nature of the dance's rhythm.
The polska dances likely evolved from court dances such as the polonaise or the 2/4 time minuet involving larger sets of people. Some see traces of the evolution from set dances to couples dances and from double time to triple time in the minuets, still danced in some communities of Finland and Denmark. In these, the dance starts with a large set of dancers dancing a slower formal section and ends with couples or foursomes dancing a faster, more energetic polska section.
n the prevalent 3/4 time form, polska dances were most common in Norway, Sweden and Swedish-speaking Finland, but with versions seen in Finnish-speaking Finland and in Denmark. It is best to discuss these dances by country as their regional histories, while contemporaneous, were quite varied and the dances known today differ significantly from one country to the next.
