from Hacker News

Once banned, Poland's stately 18th century dance garners UNESCO honors (2024)

by danielam on 4/15/25, 5:20 PM with 38 comments

  • by piokoch on 4/18/25, 7:21 AM

    Russians considered Frederic Chopin music to be "Polish guns hidden in flowers" (one of the Russian officials citation) so they had to ban it (on the Polish territory occupied by Russia, in Russia itself it was legal to play Chopin...).

  • by danielam on 4/16/25, 12:49 AM

  • by mrbonner on 4/18/25, 2:57 PM

    The polonaise is a dance for those curious about classical forms. J.S. Bach included this elegant, fast-paced, stylized dance in several of his suites. Though rooted in folk traditions, the polonaise evolved into a refined court dance. For those interested, composer Sara Schumann also wrote an entire suite of polonaises, though she remains relatively unknown.

    To any music experts here—especially pianists—why are these called "stylized" dances? I understand they’re based on folk dance forms, but I often struggle to connect the music to the original dances. Some, like the slow and distinct sarabande, are easier to recognize. But how do you tell the difference between something like a minuet and a polonaise?

  • by milchek on 4/19/25, 6:23 AM

    Thanks for the share. I used to be part of a Polish folk dancing ensemble here in Australia and we would perform this dance. As a teen I have to admit I was sometimes embarrassed to dress up and perform since in Australia people didn’t really know the traditions or history.

    Recently, though, I took my daughter to a class for the exact same group who is still performing and has a much larger cohort of young proud Polish Australians - am really impressed another generation is embracing their heritage this way.

  • by ozornin on 4/18/25, 10:23 AM

    Terrible fact-checking and I doubt the good faith by Associate Press. The authors (Monika Ścisłowska and Rafał Niedzielski) claim that Polonaise was banned in USSR, which is false. Neither it was ever banned in Russian Empire.

    The culture.pl article mentions that > dancing the polonaise was temporarily banned in the Congress Kingdom

    Which could be the case, I don't know, but I couldn't google other sources in 10 minutes either.

  • by akho on 4/18/25, 8:31 AM

    Can someone give a source for communists banning polonaise? It sounds implausible, and googling did not produce a satisfying result.