Polka Music

Polka Music - The World’s Happiest Music.

There’s some debate over where the polka originated.  If you search the internet, you’ll find a wide opinion on where it actually came from.  Here’s one source you may want to check out is PBS’s Independent Lens’, Polka Time.  Here is some of what they say:

“Polka originated as a Czech peasant dance. Historic folklore has it that a peasant girl named Anna Slezak invented the steps one day for her own amusement. The word “pulka” is derived from the Czech phrase for “half-step,” which refers to the dance pattern of lightly stepping from one foot to the other.

The polka dance was first introduced to Prague ballrooms in 1835, and to Paris ballrooms in 1840. French dancers took to polka immediately, and it soon grew wildly popular. Polka eventually reached England and the United States by the late 1840s. In the twentieth century, Polish American immigrants adopted the polka as their national dance. Today, polka is one of the few dances that originated during the nineteenth century that is still popular worldwide.”