Varsovienne

The Varsoviana is both a couple dance and a melody. Whilst originally conceived as a mazurka (with its characteristic 34 time and accent on the 2nd or 3rd beat) it is now regularly mislabeled as a waltz (even being known as The Waltz of Vienna). The Varsoviana is known by a variety of variations of its name (such as the Varsouvienne, Varsovienne or La Va), but it also has names which reference the distinctive 'pause' motif in the dance (such as Shoe the Donkey, Put your Little Foot, Cock your Leg Up) as well as titles that refer to songs which have come to be associated with the tune (e.g. Jan Pierewiet, Mascando Chicote, Turkey Rhubarb). The dance and melody is known across Europe, North America, South America and Australasia. It is one of the most well known and long lived of all the 19th century 'round' couple dances, it was one of the earliest ever "sequence" dances. Its longevity is possibly due to its distinctive choreography, in particular the novelty (for that time) of having a pause motif in the dance. The pause motif which marks out all versions of the Varsoviana dance, usually through a point of the toe or heel held for one of two beats, also makes it more difficult to relocate the dance to a different tune, perhaps protecting the association between dance choreography and melody. The earliest reference to the creation of 'La Varsoviana' is a French newspaper Journal Des Faits.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Varsovienne”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

Varsovienne is dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶