Boston

…waltz and the gliding, dipping Boston. Composers of famous waltzes include Frédéric Chopin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Johann Strauss and his sons, especially Johann Strauss the Younger, who was known as “the Waltz King.”

…Americans later on had their Boston waltz, a slower, gliding variant. About 1840 a serious rival to the waltz emerged in the polka, a Bohemian dance that took its name from the Czech word půlka, “half step.” It was full of fiery vigour. Another Bohemian folk dance finding favour in…