Mazurka

Mazurka, traditional, highly improvisatory Polish dance for a circle of couples. It is danced with many figures and stamping, heel-clicking steps, to music in moderate µ time with a strongly accented beat. Originating among the Mazurs of central Poland in the 1500s, it spread through Europe in the early 1800s as a ballroom dance for one, four, or eight couples. Its offshoot was the varsovienne, a popular couple dance. A form of the mazurka became a character dance step, or caractère, used by such choreographers as Marius Petipa of Russia, who incorporated different folk dances into his 19th-century ballets to evoke cultures, occupations, and social classes.