High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 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.