Dancing Through History: The Polonaise & Its Enduring Legacy

The polonaise is a simple yet graceful Polish national dance – one of five, along with the mazur, krakowiak, oberek and kujawiak. Its name comes from the French language, in which la danse polonaise means exactly ‘Polish dance’. At the end of 2023, it was added to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The polonaise is a dance in ¾ time with a moderate tempo and a characteristic rhythmic formula: an eighth, two sixteenths, four eighths; and in cadence: four sixteenths and two quarter notes. Its origins can be traced back to a 17th-century dance called the chodzony (walked dance), which originated in ritual village wedding festivities and over time came to the courts of the nobility. The oldest mention of the dance – or simply the walk, which may have been the prototype of the polonaise – is believed to be a 16th-century notation by Jan Kochanowski in an account of a tribute paid to the Polish king Zygmunt August by the Prussian prince Albrecht Friedrich of Hohenzoller:

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_{So the trumpets and loud drums were struck,}

_{And at the same time a huge musket was set off.}

_{[…] Such a bang rose up at the time; and when the king then}

_{Moved from his majesty in his golden cloak,}

_{All moved with him; there, thus, as the morning}

_{Zephyr on the silent sea raises billowing waves}

_{At the first rising of the sun which, while feeling}

_{The gracious wind, they lazily advance.}

_{After that behind the larger spirit they rise denser and denser,}

_{And flowing against the sun, they flash to it from afar:}

_{In this shape people then moved from their places,}

_{And towards their dwelling as they walked together.}

_{The last of the day’s revelry was claimed,}

_{Dances and good thoughts and the sweet sound of the lute.}

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Polonaise danced in ‘Pan Tadeusz’, directed by Andrzej Wajda, 1998, photo: Piotr Bujnowicz / FabrykaObrazu.com / Forum

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The name chodzony in reference to the dance first appeared in a poem by Kasper Miaskowski from the early 17th century. In addition to the chodzony, accounts also speak of świeczkowe (candle) dances, where people walked with candles in their hands or with glass candle jars on their heads, as well as dances performed at the weddings of Warsaw burghers: so-called chmielowe (hops) dances before nuptials and poduszkowe (pillow) dances when the bride and groom went to bed. Also known are 17th-century descriptions of dances at the royal court that were sometimes slow, rather similar to processions and at other times slow at first but transforming over time into fast ones but similar in character – perhaps this fast dance had the form of the later mazur.

The polonaise became widespread at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. By the end of the 18th century, it was already known throughout Europe as the ‘Polish dance’ (called variously polacca, polonaise, polnischer Tanz, balletto polacco, chorea polonica). This was certainly due to Augustus II and Augustus III – Polish kings and Saxon electors, who began their balls in Dresden with the polonaise. Representatives of practically all European courts attended the ceremonies they organized and later took the dance to their countries. This fashion reached the point where, in the second half of the eighteenth century, the polonaise was for a time the first among European dances, placed even before the French minuet. As Franz Magnus Böhme wrote:

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Thanks to its characteristic rhythm, this dance has become one of the most interesting instrumental forms for expressing rich, especially chivalrous content. Almost all masters of sound composed polonaises for this idealistic purpose.

The dance was particularly well received in the German countries, Denmark and Scandinavia, while in Dresden the tradition of dancing the polonaise started by Augustus II continued until the 20th century.

The polonaise was distinguished by a moderate, steady pace and the so-called ‘Polish step’. Steps could be embellished with jumps – some dancers even wove jumps called holubce (heel clicking) into the polonaise. The dance was performed by processions of couples or one couple, and sometimes took the form of a circle dance. Men handled women with gallantry, and clear differences would be marked in the attitudes of the two sexes in the dance: the delicacy and restraint of the women was juxtaposed with the determination and self-confidence of the men. A man never let go of his partner’s hands, only changing the way he held them at times. In the description of German dance theorist Carl Joseph von Feldtenstein, Poles dancing the polonaise also had characteristic facial expressions and made gestures that foreigners found difficult to imitate. It is clear from descriptions that the earlier form of the dance was somewhat more complex than the one we know today. Steps were performed forward, sideways, as well as backward, and many figures added variety to the dance itself. The dignified polonaise could also be danced by older people – King Stanisław August Poniatowski himself over time refused to participate in other dances and limited himself to the polonaise only. Poniatowski, by the way, excelled as a polonaise dancer, as Johann Bernoulli, a Swiss mathematician visiting Poland, wrote about him:

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The King has danced the polonaise several times with his innate allure and grace. He is considered to be one of the first dancers, and although he is already starting to put on a little weight, he still presents himself very well while dancing.

The fashion for the dance fostered the development of the music – the years 1792–1830 were the years of a great flourishing of polonaise music, both Polish and European, especially German. To some extent, in addition to musical qualities, the tragic fate of Poland – partitions, uprisings and emigrations – contributed to this. For other nationalities, interest in the polonaise was an expression of sympathy for the cause of Polish independence; for native artists, grief or melancholy, and the music also supported patriotic feelings. Stefan Burhardt described the role the polonaise played in Polish history as follows:

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[...] in moments of power and splendour, it symbolized the greatness and majesty of the Republic, while in days of decline and captivity, it lifted the spirit of the nation and gave it the strength to survive.

The polonaise appeared in various forms, depending on the role the music was intended to play: on the one hand, there were utilitarian polonaises, intended for balls and masquerades – for dancing. On the other hand, there were works composed by great virtuosos, intended for concert performances. The third group was amateurs, fond of this kind of repertoire – their polonaises were stylized, intended for home music-making. Among Poles, a great contribution to the sound of the polonaise was made by Michał Kleofas Ogiński, who shaped two varieties of it: a stately one, in a moderate tempo and major key, and an elegiac one, in a slower tempo and minor key. They were also composed by Stanisław Moniuszko, Karol Lipiński, Maria Szymanowska and Karol Krupiński, among others, while the crowning achievement of the polonaise as a Polish musical genre was undoubtedly the work of Fryderyk Chopin. Today we can find the rhythm of the polonaise even in some Polish Christmas carols, such as ‘Bóg się rodzi’ (God Is Born), ‘Dzisiaj w Betlejem’ (Today in Bethlehem) and ‘W żłobie leży’ (Lying in a Manger). Among foreign composers in the genre were Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johann Sebastian Bach and Carl Maria von Weber.

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High school graduates from the Adam Mickiewicz Secondary School No. I in Bialystok dance the polonaise at their prom, photo: Anatol Chomicz / FORUM

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The polonaise came to schools in the 18th century. In the colleges of the nobility, created on the model of Western establishments, the Theatine priests and later the Jesuits and the Piarists at Warsaw’s Collegium Nobilium, besides fencing or horseback riding, taught French, German, English and Polish dances to young people. The tradition of dancing the polonaise at proms, which is still alive today, dates back to the first half of the 19th century, when the custom of organizing high school graduation balls appeared in the Prussian partition. As students were acquiring knowledge of national dances at school, they danced the polonaise at balls to use their newly acquired skills. With time, this custom spread across the Polish lands, although not without adversity – for example, dancing the polonaise was temporarily banned in the Congress Kingdom. After Poland regained its independence, the subject ‘Poland and its culture’ was introduced into the school curriculum in 1933, an element of which was the study of national dances. At that time, the tradition of dancing the polonaise together by the students of the graduating classes returned to schools, but it disappeared again after 1948 for the duration of Stalinism. After 1956, the custom gradually began to return, though not as an obligation. The modern form of the polonaise was established in 1987–89 by the Council of Experts on Folklore of the Ministry of Culture and Art: five pair sets, three types of steps, two types of bows and ten figures were precisely described. Today, dancing the polonaise at studniówka (prom) remains an obligatory element of the ceremony – it is probably impossible to imagine a studniówka that is not officially opened with the ceremonial national dance. The most frequently chosen polonaise music for balls today is probably Wojciech Kilar’s piece from the film Pan Tadeusz, directed by Andrzej Wajda. Sometimes the dance is preceded by the phrase ‘It is time to begin the polonaise,’ taken from Mickiewicz’s literary original:

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It is time to begin the Polonaise:
the Chamberlain steps up and tosses back
his kontusz sleeves; he twirls and proudly displays
his moustache, choosing Zosia from the pack.
He bows, inviting her to lead the dance
with him; others line up in pairs behind;
after his signal, all couples advance.

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[trans. Leonard Kress]

At the end of 2023, the polonaise was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – as the sixth Polish tradition, along with Cracovian creche making, bee-keeping culture, falconry, the tradition of flower carpets for Corpus Christi processions and rafting.

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