PMRC Polish Dance

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No matter where you go or who you are with people will know some type of dance. Dancing is different to many people. There are different styles and for every style there are different movements. Each style or movement can be perceived and interpreted differently to each person. That is why dance is popular all over the world; it is a form of expression. A good way to figure out a person’s culture is to observing the dances they preform at events. Each culture has different aspects to their dances that makes it easy to distinguish from other cultures dances. This essay will be examining the different aspects of dances native to Poland’s dances. Dancing is major part Polish people’s lives. Blank states “dancing is an important pastime and the …show more content…

Another common theme between most Polish dances is that they are danced to upbeat Folk music. These dances originate back to the 16th and 17th century (PMRC Polish Dance) . Folk dances have three similar characteristics in them; “The three most characteristic steps are: the galop (fast running forward), the hołubiec (jump with clicking the heels and stamping; pl. hołubce), and the krzesany (this term is used as a name of a separate dance in the Podhale area, but here refers to a sliding motion of the feet with stamping)” (PMRC Polish Dance). Trochimczyk also states that the dances are lead by the males. Most dances are not very serious. As Nikolais talks about his choreography career in his newspaper segment he talks about how “dance is an art of motion” and that it is one of the defining what kind of dance it is. A lot of Polish dances do not have tight strict movements. It is more loose and flowing motions. The dancers have a smile on their faces the whole time. Also, most dances incorporate more then just one or two dancers at a time. Although most dances have these similarities they will have variations according to what region of Poland they were made in. Joukowsky says that Polish dances are influenced by surrounding countries. He said the biggest influences were “Russians in the northeast, Ukrainians in the southeast, Southern Slavs and Hungarians southwest and the Germans” (Teaching of the Ethnic Dances pg.

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