Description
The most characteristic feature of the dance is the presence of the so-called mazurka rhythms, which occur in a variety of non-dancing songs and dances from the central and western parts of Poland. According to current research, it is not possible to describe traits which would unequivocally distinguish an oberek from a mazur or a kujawiak (the rhythm is further discussed in the section on “music”).
There are many folk dances that fall into this category, besides the ones mentioned above: ksebka, obertas, okrągły (round), okrąglak (round), and owczarek (shepherd).
Oskar Kolberg stated in the first volume of his monumental folklore collection, Pieśni ludu polskiego (Songs of the Polish people 1857), that kujawiak, i.e. obertas, is the most popular dance in the whole country. In his later writings, Kolberg distinguishes between these dances differing in tempo, with the mazur occupying the middle ground between the slow, lyrical kujawiak and the furiously fast-paced oberek. Moreover, he describes a performance practice of dancing a set of three dances, a chodzony (walking dance, folk version of the polonaise), followed by a kujawiak, and a mazur or an obertas (oberek).
This confusion of terminology and typology arose because of the great popularity of these dances and the existence of many regional variants. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the mazurkas “that remained unaltered by influences of urban music seem to have no definite ending, as the repeats are made ad libitum, or their concluding bar finishes on the dominant on the third beat, without accent leaving the impression of disappearance into the air […] A certain pride of bearing and sometimes a wildness sharply differentiate its mood from that of the more sensuous waltz. The dance has the character of an improvisation, and is usually danced by four, eight or 12 couples, but sometimes by an indefinite number of dancers.”
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