HothouseSalsero
01-31-2007, 08:03 AM
A polka couple whose prize ribbons are always blue
She's not Polish (neither is he - and neither is polka, for that matter), but they're the Pennsylvania Farm Show champs, the color of their ribbons always blue.
By Karen Heller
Inquirer Staff Writer
Yes, these are the commonwealth's polka champions, winning their fifth consecutive blue ribbon at the Pennsylvania Farm Show this month.
"At first, I thought polka would be good for a laugh," says Quyne Rider, 25, who, as far as she knows, doesn't have a milliliter of Polish blood in her muscular dancer's body.
"People notice when we polka," says her partner Peter Kozak, 24. "Maybe Quyne stands out a little."
Invariably, Rider - her first name pronounced "Quinn" - is the only African American competing in the farm show's Equine Arena or at the polka dances she loves to attend, like Dick Pillar's Polkabration in Connecticut and Wildwood's annual Polka Spree by the Sea.
For the record, Kozak isn't Polish, either. "I'm 100 percent Ukrainian American."
Rider, of East Falls, and Kozak, of Jenkintown, started winning competitions within months of partnering in 2002, quickly learning the energetic folk dances, which demand constant movement, much jumping, high kicks, twirls, and self-explanatory "cuddles."
As a dance couple, they are undefeated at the farm show, held every January - which, as it happens, is National Polka Month.
"I wouldn't even know what to do with a red ribbon," Rider says.
"Quyne and Peter are excellent, very good in their technique and their presentation. Everybody loves dancing with them," says Dolly Kubasco, who runs Dolly's Polka Page Web site, signing off "Polkatively yours." (Polka, an insistently upbeat dance, seems to invite puns.)
When Rider first started dancing the polka, traveling to less urban and racially diverse towns, "it was a bit awkward and sometimes a bit scary." She recalls that one white man who danced with her received threats from a member of his rural community. "But over time, it's become easier. There's a lot of acceptance."
Says Kubasco of Rider, "When she first started out dancing polka at age 18, walking into events where she was the only African American, you had to admire her. I give Quyne a lot of credit."
Rider's mother, Deatra, a teacher at Germantown High School, agrees. "Quyne's been to a lot of places where they're not accustomed to people of color. That has to be tough. I was concerned at first, but as long as she's enjoying herself, I'm happy for her.
"She's a lot braver than I am. She has a lot of guts. She tends to go for what's not been done before. I say she and Emmitt Smith are changing perceptions," the teacher says, invoking the former Cowboys running back who won ABC's Dancing With the Stars' ballroom competition.
Rider and Kozak regularly go dancing with a group of other self-described "polkamaniacs," sometimes driving hours to an event, especially if Jimmy Sturr, 15-time Grammy winner, Polka King and Mrs. T's Pierogies spokesman, and his 10-piece orchestra are playing.
"You get to dance for four hours to a live band for $15 or $20. You can't beat that for entertainment," says Rider, who is a polyglot of dance, having pursued ballet, tap, jazz, international folk and salsa. "It's a great aerobic workout and a lot of fun. It's the people who make it that way."
An outgoing, restless type, the Girls' High grad works the midnight shift as a UPS supervisor in Willow Grove and helps out as a barista at Well Grounded, an East Falls coffeehouse. Beginning this week, she also teaches polka and ballet (though not together) at the Wissahickon Dance Academy through Mount Airy Learning Tree.
In addition, she takes courses in international business and legal studies at Temple and Community College of Philadelphia. And, she says, "I'm thinking of going to cooking school. I make a mean cheesecake."
Kozak, a Temple graduate and a more grounded sort, has just one job - running OmniKoz, a computer consulting company. He too is a master of diverse dances; his mother, Halya Kozak, is Pennsylvania's master artist and choreographer in Ukrainian dancing.
•
Despite conventional wisdom, polka did not begin in Poland, but is commonly believed to have originated in early-19th-century eastern Bohemia, now Czechoslovakia. Polka is from the Czech word pulka, which means half, a reference to the dance's short steps and quick, bouncy rhythm. By midcentury, polka's popularity had swept Europe.
In the United States, polka thrives in the Polish and Slovenian immigrant strongholds of Chicago, Cleveland, western Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which adopted it as the state dance in 1993. It exists in many forms, among them a growing punk polka movement, and Norteña, a fusion of Mexican and polka sounds.
So far, though, there's no evidence of polka's gaining popularity among African Americans - at least not in Rider's experience.
This despite the fact that polka is "for everyone - Irish, Italian, German, whatever," says Kubasco, who was crowned Pennsylvania's Polka Princess in 2005.
The Polka Princess business is a sore subject for Rider. The competition, based on an essay and interview, not on polka talent, annually selects a state ambassador for the dance. Rider, who has entered twice, lost this year to Westmoreland County's Darlene Kovach.
She feels one judge was rooting for her, in the hope of making polka's image more diverse. But she recalls another judge telling her, 'I'm really into keeping polka Polish. How do you think you could do that?' "
"At that moment, I knew it was over," Rider says.
She's not bitter - it's not in her nature. She doesn't think she will try for Polka Princess again, but she loves polka and always will.
"In order for polka to survive, you need a different face," Rider wrote in her competition essay.
She's determined to make that happen.
For video of the polka champs, go to: http://go.philly.com/polka.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/16584043.htm
She's not Polish (neither is he - and neither is polka, for that matter), but they're the Pennsylvania Farm Show champs, the color of their ribbons always blue.
By Karen Heller
Inquirer Staff Writer
Yes, these are the commonwealth's polka champions, winning their fifth consecutive blue ribbon at the Pennsylvania Farm Show this month.
"At first, I thought polka would be good for a laugh," says Quyne Rider, 25, who, as far as she knows, doesn't have a milliliter of Polish blood in her muscular dancer's body.
"People notice when we polka," says her partner Peter Kozak, 24. "Maybe Quyne stands out a little."
Invariably, Rider - her first name pronounced "Quinn" - is the only African American competing in the farm show's Equine Arena or at the polka dances she loves to attend, like Dick Pillar's Polkabration in Connecticut and Wildwood's annual Polka Spree by the Sea.
For the record, Kozak isn't Polish, either. "I'm 100 percent Ukrainian American."
Rider, of East Falls, and Kozak, of Jenkintown, started winning competitions within months of partnering in 2002, quickly learning the energetic folk dances, which demand constant movement, much jumping, high kicks, twirls, and self-explanatory "cuddles."
As a dance couple, they are undefeated at the farm show, held every January - which, as it happens, is National Polka Month.
"I wouldn't even know what to do with a red ribbon," Rider says.
"Quyne and Peter are excellent, very good in their technique and their presentation. Everybody loves dancing with them," says Dolly Kubasco, who runs Dolly's Polka Page Web site, signing off "Polkatively yours." (Polka, an insistently upbeat dance, seems to invite puns.)
When Rider first started dancing the polka, traveling to less urban and racially diverse towns, "it was a bit awkward and sometimes a bit scary." She recalls that one white man who danced with her received threats from a member of his rural community. "But over time, it's become easier. There's a lot of acceptance."
Says Kubasco of Rider, "When she first started out dancing polka at age 18, walking into events where she was the only African American, you had to admire her. I give Quyne a lot of credit."
Rider's mother, Deatra, a teacher at Germantown High School, agrees. "Quyne's been to a lot of places where they're not accustomed to people of color. That has to be tough. I was concerned at first, but as long as she's enjoying herself, I'm happy for her.
"She's a lot braver than I am. She has a lot of guts. She tends to go for what's not been done before. I say she and Emmitt Smith are changing perceptions," the teacher says, invoking the former Cowboys running back who won ABC's Dancing With the Stars' ballroom competition.
Rider and Kozak regularly go dancing with a group of other self-described "polkamaniacs," sometimes driving hours to an event, especially if Jimmy Sturr, 15-time Grammy winner, Polka King and Mrs. T's Pierogies spokesman, and his 10-piece orchestra are playing.
"You get to dance for four hours to a live band for $15 or $20. You can't beat that for entertainment," says Rider, who is a polyglot of dance, having pursued ballet, tap, jazz, international folk and salsa. "It's a great aerobic workout and a lot of fun. It's the people who make it that way."
An outgoing, restless type, the Girls' High grad works the midnight shift as a UPS supervisor in Willow Grove and helps out as a barista at Well Grounded, an East Falls coffeehouse. Beginning this week, she also teaches polka and ballet (though not together) at the Wissahickon Dance Academy through Mount Airy Learning Tree.
In addition, she takes courses in international business and legal studies at Temple and Community College of Philadelphia. And, she says, "I'm thinking of going to cooking school. I make a mean cheesecake."
Kozak, a Temple graduate and a more grounded sort, has just one job - running OmniKoz, a computer consulting company. He too is a master of diverse dances; his mother, Halya Kozak, is Pennsylvania's master artist and choreographer in Ukrainian dancing.
•
Despite conventional wisdom, polka did not begin in Poland, but is commonly believed to have originated in early-19th-century eastern Bohemia, now Czechoslovakia. Polka is from the Czech word pulka, which means half, a reference to the dance's short steps and quick, bouncy rhythm. By midcentury, polka's popularity had swept Europe.
In the United States, polka thrives in the Polish and Slovenian immigrant strongholds of Chicago, Cleveland, western Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which adopted it as the state dance in 1993. It exists in many forms, among them a growing punk polka movement, and Norteña, a fusion of Mexican and polka sounds.
So far, though, there's no evidence of polka's gaining popularity among African Americans - at least not in Rider's experience.
This despite the fact that polka is "for everyone - Irish, Italian, German, whatever," says Kubasco, who was crowned Pennsylvania's Polka Princess in 2005.
The Polka Princess business is a sore subject for Rider. The competition, based on an essay and interview, not on polka talent, annually selects a state ambassador for the dance. Rider, who has entered twice, lost this year to Westmoreland County's Darlene Kovach.
She feels one judge was rooting for her, in the hope of making polka's image more diverse. But she recalls another judge telling her, 'I'm really into keeping polka Polish. How do you think you could do that?' "
"At that moment, I knew it was over," Rider says.
She's not bitter - it's not in her nature. She doesn't think she will try for Polka Princess again, but she loves polka and always will.
"In order for polka to survive, you need a different face," Rider wrote in her competition essay.
She's determined to make that happen.
For video of the polka champs, go to: http://go.philly.com/polka.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/16584043.htm