Philadelphia, Pa. (PMN)--It’s pretty clear now that you don’t have to be Polish to enjoy the polka or to wear Polish-style polka costumes, for that matter. Quyne Rider, an African American, and Peter Kozak, became the Pennsylvania Farm Show champs doing the polka. "Over time, it's become easier," said Rider, adding, "There’s a lot of acceptance."

"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."

Kozak isn’t Polish, either. "I’m 100% Ukrainian American," he says.

Rider (her first name is 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.

As a dance couple, they are undefeated at the farm show, held every January, which also happens to be National Polka Month.

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."

Rider and Kozak regularly go dancing with a group of other self-described "polkamaniacs," sometimes driving hours to an event, especially if Jimmy Sturr and his 10-piece orchestra are playing.

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 mid-century, polka’s popularity had swept Europe.