Polska (dance) - Sweden

Sweden

In Sweden, the polska music tradition is continuous, with tunes and styles passed down through families, relatives and neighbors. While styles have certainly evolved over time, the traditions and the roots can be traced back hundreds of years. In addition, through the 19th century a series of professional and semi-professional archivists travelled the land transcribing and annotating tunes. In contrast, however, polska dance traditions came under severe pressure during the industrialization of Sweden and, with few exceptions, succumbed entirely during the early 20th century. Most of what is known about Swedish polska dance comes from research conducted during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. While some early films were located, researchers for the most part collected descriptions from older dancers—in some cases quite elderly ones—who had learned the dances in tradition from close relatives or others in an older generation.

On the other hand, what is known about Swedish polska dancing indicates a rich tradition with perhaps several hundred unique variations of the triple time dances and, frequently, a parallel music tradition of uniquely styled tunes. Broadly, there are three styles of music for Swedish polska:

• The semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, typically played and danced in a smooth character and even rhythm. This style was characteristic of the music and dance in southern Sweden and up the eastern Baltic coast. Dances in Småland and other provinces of southern Sweden were typically slängpolskas with the couple dancing on a spot, often involving intricate patterns of holds and underarm turns similar to those seen in Norwegian springar. Farther up the coast the dances tended to become danced with couples moving counterclockwise around the periphery of the room (perhaps influenced by the introduction of the waltz) and devoting most of the dance to the clockwise couple turn where the couples face each other and make a full rotation with each measure (e.g., the village of Bingsjö in Dalarna and villages in the provinces of Hälsingland and Medelpad).
• The quaver or eighth-note polska. This pervasive style may be found throughout Sweden, but perhaps reaching its apotheosis in the folk district of Dalarna, where uniquely styled versions can be distinguished in communities only a few kilometers separated from one another or the next municipality (e.g., Boda, Rättvik, and Orsa). The accompanying dance styles tend to emphasize a clockwise couple turn alternating with a resting step in which couples walk – typically stepping on only the first and third beat – in escort position. Rhythms can also become asymmetrical, as for example, the early two seen in polska dances from western Dalarna danced in Älvdalen and Transtrand or the late third in the south of Dalarna. The wide variation in the placement of the second beat perhaps explains why Swedish fiddlers typically tap their feet on only the first and third beat.
• The tuplet polska. This style is most commonly seen in the mountainous western sections of the provinces bordering Norway: Värmland, western Dalarna, Jämtland and Härjedalen. The dance traditions show strong cross-border influences with many dances that combine phrase-matching sequences of elaborated promenading, bakmes (slower counterclockwise turning) and polska (faster clockwise turning) that are similar to those seen with Norwegian pols. This dance style is also seen with eighth note polska in the border areas.

A typical tune in the Swedish polska tradition shows a common structure, with two related eight-measure phrases, each repeated (a total of 32 bars constituting a single complete rendition of the tune) and the whole structure repeated two or more times. However, there are longer tunes (a storpolska or big polska has three or occasionally even four phrases) and there exist many tunes with odd numbers of measures per phrase and phrases that vary in length between parts. The first beat is not stressed except in hambo a dance from the beginning of the 20th century.

It is important that sharp lines and distinctions not be drawn. For example, all three styles of polska music form the historical traditions of Jämtland; sixteenth note polskas can also be found in virtually all areas of Sweden; and the placement of the second beat can be controversial even among fiddlers from the same community. Moreover, interesting counter-examples may be found for virtually any statement made in this article.