In the 1840s, the polka craze established lead/follow partner dancing as the normative social dance structure in the Atlantic world. In the process, it imposed a choreographed performance of bourgeois heteropatriarchy (originally developed with the waltz) on Europe's colonies and post-colonies. However, a central mechanism of the lead/follow system in social partner dance is the woman's body attitude, and as the nature of that attitude changes, so do the associated dances. In the Americas, women acculturated to African-rooted principles of polycentricity disrupted the equilibrium of the lead/follow dynamic, catalyzing the creation of new partner dance forms and techniques. On the one hand, this resulted in an intensification of the lead/follow system such that men could now control and shape the dissociated parts of their partners’ bodies. On the other hand, it also seeded the fissioning and eventual dissolution of the dance partnership itself.

中文翻译：

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引领他人：搭档舞蹈漫长世纪中的性别与殖民主义

1840 年代，波尔卡热潮将领舞/跟舞确立为大西洋世界规范的社交舞蹈结构。在此过程中，它向欧洲殖民地和后殖民地强加了一场精心设计的资产阶级异质父权制表演（最初是由华尔兹发展起来的）。然而，社交舞伴舞蹈中引导/跟随系统的核心机制是女性的身体态度，并且随着该态度的性质发生变化，相关舞蹈也会发生变化。在美洲，女性接受了根植于非洲的多中心原则，打破了领舞/跟随动态的平衡，促进了新的舞伴舞蹈形式和技巧的创造。一方面，这导致了引导/跟随系统的强化，使得男人现在可以控制和塑造其伴侣身体的分离部分。另一方面，它也为舞蹈合作关系本身的裂变和最终解散埋下了种子。