Troika (dance)

Troika is a Russian performance dance based on Russian folk dances. The Russian word troika means three-horse team/gear, and the dancers imitate the prancing of horses pulling a sled or a carriage.^[1]

The first version was created by choreographer Nadezhda Nadezhdina for her folklore dance troupe Beroyzka in 1948.^[2] Since then this dance is included into repertoires of virtually all Russian ethnographic dance ensembles. Initially, it was a dance for a man and two women,^[3] but later choreographies with other combinations were created, such as one woman and two men or three women.^[4]

Other cultures

Similar folk dances are known among other Slavic peoples, e.g., the Polish Trojak.

A Cajun dance of the same name, Troika, exists, similar to the Russian dance.^[5] It has been suggested^{[citation needed]} that the Cajun version of the dance originated at the times when Cossacks of the Russian tsar army were stationed in Paris.

There was a German contra dance triolet recorded in 1829 for groups of one man and two women.^[6]

See also

• List of ethnic, regional, and folk dances by origin
• Outline of dance