A Hungarian dance with a slow introduction and a fast, wild finish.
‘The folk dances finding their accompaniment to this music - the Hungarian czardas, the Polish mazurka, the German waltz, the Russian trepak, and even English Morris dancing - have a recognizably formalized shape.’
‘He caps them with the theme rewritten as a polka/waltz, a tango, a czardas, in ragtime, and ‘in the style of film music.’’
‘He would rise sharply into a fifth sous-sus to explode into a buoyant jump, peppered with the gigue, czardas, or mazurka of his beloved character dance.’
‘Just minutes before, his sister Erica has finished leading a czardas with a zest that might make any Mittel European homesick.’
‘He tweaked and refined each scene, revising whole sections, such as the mazurka and czardas, which had been altered for television.’
‘Hungary has numerous dance houses with live music - czardas being the main leg-shaking exercise - though some can be rather earnest and purist.’
Origin
Mid 19th century from Hungarian csárdás, from csárda ‘inn’.
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