Polka

Polka is a lively Central European couple dance and the music written for it, in quick duple time with a characteristic half-step and short, accented phrases. Originating in Bohemia in the 1830s, it spread through Europe and the Americas as a ballroom craze before settling into the ethnic dance halls of immigrant communities, where Czech, Polish, Slovenian, German and Mexican traditions each developed their own variants. Accordion or brass lead the standard band, and in the United States polka sustained a recording and touring circuit crowned by its own Grammy category between 1986 and 2009.