(Cz.: ‘leaping’). A fast Czech dance in duple time. In his manuscript Thesaurus linguae Bohemicae (Prague, Národní muzeum) the grammarian Václav Jan Rosa (1620–89) recorded the terms ‘skočná píseň’ (‘leaping song’) and ‘skočný tanec’ (‘leaping dance’) or ‘skočná’; ‘skočák’ is a later and more colloquial variant. By the time Jungmann defined a skočná as a ‘Bohemian dance’ (1838) it was already well known from collections of folk and social dances and from references in literature (e.g. Šebastián Hněvkovský's poem, 1798, about a godless bagpiper playing a skočná on his instrument). Texts to which the skočná was sung are generally of a humorous nature (ex.1). The lack of further defining characteristics allowed the term to be used generically for other fast duple-time dances, such as the vrták (‘turning dance’), dupák (‘stamping dance’), obkročák (‘straddling dance’), třasák (‘shaking dance’) and břitva (‘razor’). From Smetana's stylizations of both a skočná and a polka added to his Bartered Bride in 1869, it is evident he saw little difference between the two.
In Moravia (late 19th century and 20th century) the term has been used for a competitive male dance, usually in duple time, in which the dancer attempts to jump higher than his rivals, at the same time hitting his heel with his hand.
SČHK (J. Fukač) [incl. further bibliography]
J. Jungmann: ‘Skočný’, Slownjk česko-německý [German-Czech dictionary], iv (Prague, 1838)
A. Waldau [J. Jarosch]: Böhmische Nationaltänze: eine Culturstudie, i (Prague, 1859), 20–22
Z. Nejedlý: Bedřich Smetana, iv (Prague, 2/1951), 340–41, 356–9
JOHN TYRRELL