[Dance] [Polka] Polkmall, Nick.. LES POLKEUSES. Poeme Etique sur les Celebrités de la Polka. Paris: Chez Paul Masgana. 1844. First edition. 7" x 5". 68, [4], [4 ads] pp. 20th century 1/4 cloth with original paper wrappers bound in. Moderate foxing in places throughout and one small stain obscuring a few letters of text, else a very good copy of the First Edition of this scarce and charmingly illustrated tribute to the Polka dancers of Paris.

The polka was originally a Czech peasant dance and was first introduced into the ballrooms of Prague in 1835. The name of the dance (pulka) is Czech for "half-step", referring to the rapid shift from one foot to the other. In 1840, Raab, a dancing teach of Prague, danced the polka at the Odéon Theatre in Paris where it was a tremendous success. Parisian dancing teachers seized on the new dance and refined it for their salons and ballrooms. According to Cellarius, the famous French dancing master of the mid-nineteenth century: "What young man is there, although formerly most opposed to dancing, whom the polka has not snatched from his apathy to acquire, willy-nilly, a talent suddenly become indispensable?" Polkamania resulted. Dance academies were swamped and in desperation recruited ballet girls from the Paris Opéra as dancing partners to help teach the polka, naturally attracting many young men who were interested in things other than dancing.