Mazurka - a renowned dance from Poland | Euromaxx

The folk group Mazowsze has gained worldwide acclaim with its renditions of Polish dances, especially the mazurka, a lively Polish folk dance in triple time. Ballet mistress Wioletta Milczuk is not worried about the future of folk dancing in Poland. Children here even learn how to dance the mazurka at school. The popularity has to do with history. The mazurka is Poland's calling card. Poles identify with it and use it to show where their roots lie. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the mazurka was danced at court. Nobles would meet and dance in different countries, so the dance became famous internationally. Magdalena Jankowska grew up in Germany, but her parents were Polish. She decided to move to Poland to pursue her dancing career. In the mazurka, the partner shows that he's leading. But the lady is his most important diamond, his gem, so to speak. So even the position of his hands shows that he's protecting her. There's a position where he holds her hand and protects her head from behind. Poland's flat Mazowie region is renowned for its rivers and forests. The composer Frederik Chopin was born in the small village of Żelazowa Wola, some 65 kilometers west of the capital Warsaw, in 1810. His mother was Polish and his father was French. He composed 51 mazurkas, which helped him win international fame. Krzysztof Ksiadzik is in the room where the composer was born, playing opus 50 number three, a mazurka of course. You can clearly detect the dancer's influence from the three-quarter time. Chopin then composed variations of this in his works. Music expert Teresa Nowak says that Chopin wanted to make a political statement. When Chopin started composing mazurkas, Poland was under Russian rule. So it was important to compose Polish music for Poland's national identity. All his life, Chopin tried to create a Polish national style. Today Poland's national anthem is a mazurka. It was when Chopin spent the summer of 1828 at Siennicki Palace, west of Warsaw, that he came into close contact with the dance, seeing and hearing it performed locally. Today young people continue to dance the mazurka. It's very special to dance it, but I'm from the region of Siennicki, so it was easier for me to learn.