Siber is a slow dance in 2/4 metre, danced in pairs along a circle line. The dancers in closed hold perform slow suwane steps resembling foxtrot steps. During the dance, the pairs make half-turns around a common axis to the right and to the left. The half-turns and, sometimes, the suwane steps are accompanied by distinctive hip rocking. This slightly swinging body movement and the walking steps between the runs (the “strolling” quality of the dance) were borrowed from foxtrot. In Sieradz region, siber was most often danced in a regular, slow tempo, without any fast turns, but with distinctive knee bending during the half-turns, and with swaying to the sides.

The Lasowiacy in Podkarpacie region danced siber in a moderate tempo, and the dance consisted of two parts. In the first part, dancers move along a circle line without any turns, moving forward with straight steps in a typical foxtrot manner. In the second part, after the suwane steps, the pairs rotate to the right, sometimes accentuating phrase endings with stamping.

The origin of the name siber remains unclear; most likely, it is derived from the word “shimmy”. This dance was popular in Biskupizna, Sieradz and Podkarpacie regions. It is mentioned (but not described) by Jan Bzdęga in Biskupianie, a book released in 1936. In other Wielkopolska regions, apart from the name siber, it was also called smykany, and, less often, suwany. In Podkarpacie, the name szimy was used, a clear reference to the American dance shimmy which was popular in interwar Poland. It was faster then foxtrot, with a still torso and a distinctive rapid shoulder movement forward and backward. It was more often performed in individual dancing during jazz concerts, and quickly made its way into American films. In rural szimy, the shoulder movement was absent. It is difficult to establish why this name was adopted (for example, in Rzeszów region) for a dance that rather resembled a foxtrot. Maybe this name, just like fokstrot, was simply used as a synonym for a “fashionable dance”.

Bzdęga, Jan z Domachowa. Biskupianie. Poznań-Kościan: Związek Teatrów Ludowych, 1936.

Bobrowska, Mirosława; Linette, Bogusław; Budzik, Kazimierz. Wielkopolski folklor taneczny. Poznań: Wojewódzka Biblioteka Publiczna i Centrum Animacji Kultury, 2005.

Haszczak, Alicja. Tańce rzeszowskie. Rzeszów: Zespół Pieśni i Tańca „Połoniny”, 2012.