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
Polka Wisconsin also is the home to multiple large Polish festivities where people from all over the country come to stay and listen to multiple bands on multiple days of music. These festivals usually take place in the summer, but there are a few in the winter months. The United States Polka Association is a non-profit organization based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Polka Hall of Fame is in Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Walter Solek was one of the early Polka pioneers starting in the late 1930s. Recognition expanded when the Grammy Awards were first presented for polka in 1985.