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mietlorz

nonstylized dancesmap
It's a fun dance very popular in many regions of the country, with a broom as the main prop. It was danced mainly by youngsters and had many saucy elements. Depending on the region the mietlorz ran a different course, but the number of male dancers always had to exceed the umber of females by one. Usually the dance consisted of two parts. In the first one, the mietlorz (i.e. broom man), as the surplus male dancer is called, sweeps the floor with a broom, hooking it against other dancers' legs while they stand in rows or in a circle. In the second part dancers whirl in pairs and the boy who's left without a girl dances with the broom.
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The name stems from the name of the prop, as "miotła" is the Polish for broom. Although today it's a fun dance, it retains elements of the magic and beliefs of the olden days. In ancient folk culture a broom (sometimes a stick) was thought to have magic properties. Propped against the doorstep bristles up it protected the house from evil and scared off witches. The mietlorz sometimes is also called polka z mietłą (polka with a broom), kijowy (stick dance), dziad (panhandler) or weksel (from the German word Weschel meaning "change"). The dance consisted of two parts and, depending on the region, could be danced in a circle or in two rows, but always with a surplus male dancer. It could be danced in a duple metre (2/4 or 4/4) or a changeable metre (4/4 and 3/8 or 2/4 and 3/4). When danced in a circle (e.g. in Mazovia or Subcarpathia), in the first part the lone dancer with the broom heckles the others by imitating the sweeping of the floor. He hooks against other dancers' legs, forcing them to hop and sidestep. When danced in opposite rows (in Wielkopolska or Silesia), boys form one row and girls the other. The broom man walks between the rows driving off boys from girls and picks a girl for himself to dance with in the second part. The second part is usually a polka. When dancing in a circle, the dancers have to change partners at the change of music and then the broom man has a chance of grabbing a girl. The boy who's left without a girl dances with the broom. When dancing in rows, the broom man throws the broom at the boys' row trying to grab the chosen girl and, when he succeeds, starts to whirl with her. After the polka, the sequence is repeated: the dancers form rows again or perform other figures, depending on the region and their imagination. Sometimes, e.g. in the Wielkopolska weksel, that youngsters wouldn't want to end the polka because no one wanted to be the next broom man. Then the current broom man would to split the pairs up by hitting them lightly with the broom.

 

Dąbrowska, Grażyna W. Tańcujże dobrze. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1991.

Glapa, Adam; Kowalski, Alfons. Tańce i zabawy wielkopolskie. Wrocław: PTL, 1961.

Marcinkowa, Janina; Sobczyńska, Krystyna. Folklor Górnego Śląska. Warszawa: Centralny Ośrodek Metodyki Upowszechniania Kultury, 1973.