Page "Polka" Paragraph 4

The beginning of the propagation of dance and accompanying music called polka is generally attributed to a young woman, Anna Slezakova ( born Anna Chadimova ) of Labska Tynice, Bohemia, who danced to accompany a local folk song called " Strycek Nimra koupil simla ", or " Uncle Nimra Bought a White Horse ", in 1834.

She is said to have called the dance Madera, because of its liveliness.

The dance was further propagated by the music teacher Josef Neruda, who withessed Anna dance in an unusual way, put the tune to paper, and taught other young men to dance it.

However OED says that some recorded uses of the name predate 1830, and hence this theory is discredirted.

Čeněk Zíbrt mentions that when he published this traditional story in 1894 in Narodni Listi newspaper, he received a good deal of feedback from eyewitnesses.

In particular, he wrote that according to further witness, the originating event actually happened in 1830, in Kostelec nad Labem, where she worked as a housemaid.

ZIbrt writes that he published the first version of the story in Bohemia ( June 5, 1844 ), from where it was reprinted all over Europe and in the United States.

Zibrt also wrote that simple Czech folk claimed that they knew and danced Polka long before the nobles got hold of it, i. e., it is a truly folk Czech dance.