Polka Polka The polka is originally a Czech dance and genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. The polka remains a popular folk music genre in many European countries, and is performed by folk artists in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Finland, and to a lesser extent in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Russia, and Slovakia. Local varieties of this dance are also found in the Nordic countries, Spain's Basque Country, the United
Polonaise (clothing) such example was the witzchoura, a fur-lined cloak with sleeves sometimes described as being "à la Polonaise". In May 1868 the "Ladies' Monthly Magazine" published a coloured fashion plate showing a green silk dress with an asymmetrically opening front described as being made "à la Polonaise", along with a pattern for making it up. During the very late 1860s references to historical dress became fashionable, including draped overskirts loosely based on the 18th century "robe à la polonaise". In 1871 "Peterson's Magazine" stated that the polonaise was an overdress based on the 18th century sacque, with the bodice cut in