National Polka Festival | Ennis Texas | Polka Music

Category: File - :Prague Street Musicians (Polka Band).jpg|left|thumb|Street musicians in Prague playing a polkaThe polka is a lively Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in the Czech lands and is still a common genre in Lithuanian, Czech, Croatian, Slovenian, Polish, German, Hungarian, Austrian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, and Slovakian folk music. Versions are also found in the Nordic countries, Ireland and Latin America, especially Mexico.

In light classical music, many polkas were composed by both Johann Strauss I and his son Johann Strauss II; a couple of well-known ones were composed by Bed?ich Smetana, and Jaromír Vejvoda, the author of "?koda lásky" ("Roll Out the Barrel").

The name comes from the Czech word p?lka—literally, little half—a reference to the short half-steps featuring in the dance. The word's familiar form has been influenced by the similarity to the Czech word polka, meaning "Polish woman".Online Etymology Dictionary, "polka"; Compact Oxford English Dictionary, "polka" The name has led to the dance's origin being sometimes mistakenly attributed to Poland. It should also not be confused with the polska, a Swedish dance with Polish roots; cf. polka-mazurka. A related dance is the redowa. Polkas almost always have a time signature. Popular music has also been parodied several times by "Weird Al" Yankovic in the style of polka.