{{Short description|Russian folk dance}} '''Troika''' is a Russian performance dance based on Russian folk dances. The Russian word ''troika'' means three-horse team/gear, and the dancers imitate the prancing of horses pulling a sled or a carriage.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://hda.org.ru/dancelib/57/ |title=Triolet |language=Russian |accessdate=28 August 2011 |archive-date=15 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180515112151/http://hda.org.ru/dancelib/57 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The first version was created by choreographer Nadezhda Nadezhdina for her folklore dance troupe Beroyzka in 1948.<ref>Кузнецов, Е. А., [https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vliyanie-tvorcheskogo-naslediya-masterov-narodnogo-tantsa-na-formirovanie-esteticheskogo-vkusa-u-studentov-horeograficheskih/viewer Влияние творческого наследия мастеров народного танца на формирование эстетического вкуса у студентов хореографических специализаций]</ref> Since then this dance is included into repertoires of virtually all Russian ethnographic dance ensembles. Initially, it was a dance for a man and two women,<ref>[https://gufo.me/dict/ozhegov/%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B9%D0%BA%D0%B0 тройка], ''Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary''</ref> but later choreographies with other combinations were created, such as one woman and two men or three women.<ref>Русский народный танец "Тройка" ] [4dancing.ru/blogs/200914/1883/]{{better source|date=September 2023}}</ref> {{tocright}} ==Other cultures== Similar folk dances are known among other Slavic peoples, e.g., the Polish Trojak.
A Cajun dance of the same name, '''Troika''', exists, similar to the Russian dance.<ref>''Cajun Dancing'', 1993, {{ISBN|1455601764}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=T2N-Xi7HGiwC&pg=PA139 p. 139]</ref> It has been suggested{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} that the Cajun version of the dance originated at the times when Cossacks of the Russian tsar army were stationed in Paris.
There was a German contra dance ''triolet'' recorded in 1829 for groups of one man and two women.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180515112151/http://hda.org.ru/dancelib/57 Контрдансы ХІХв./Контрдансы ХІХв. : Triolet], modern reconstruction based on the book, Eduard Helmke, ''Neue Tanz- und Bildungsschule'', 1829 </ref>
== See also == * List of ethnic, regional, and folk dances by origin * Outline of dance
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071225213403/http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2152/ Our Russian Folk Dance] from the Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge program.
Category:Cajun dance Category:Russian folk dances