Croatian folk dance

Croatian dance varies by region, and can be found in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.

Due to emigration, Croatian folk dance groups are prevalent throughout the diaspora, most notably the United States, Canada, Australia, and Germany.

Throughout a large part of Croatia, right up until World War II, the kolo was the center of village social life.

The kolo as a dance became a tool for social gathering, and was often the main venue for young women and men to get to know each other.

Other European dances became popular in certain parts of the country such as the polka in the north and the furlana in Istria, due to the respective German, Austrian, and Italian influences.

Numerous folk instruments can also be seen, such as mandolins, tamburitza, gusle, bagpipes (gajde), wind instruments such as flutes (žvegla, fajfa, dvojnice), cimbalom, accordion, clarinet (gunjci), bellows, šurle, sopele, diple (mišnjice, mih), mješina, and many others.

Podravina dances include: Hrvatsko Zagorje, or Croatian hinterland, is the north-central part of the country, where the capital Zagreb is located.

Hrvatsko Zagorje's dances include: A variation of the traditional polka: The Međimurje region forms the northern-est tip of Croatia.

On the other hand, the Nijemo Kolo from the Dalmatian hinterland shows evidence of Ottoman-era influences on the region.

The Bunjevci Croats from the Bačka region are renowned for their beautifully embroidered women's dresses, made from real silk from France, and the rattling sound the dancers' boots make as they dance.

Croatian ballroom dancing, or salonsko kolo, emerged in the nineteenth century as a result of the aforementioned influences.

Intellectual idealists saw kolo as a quintessential Slavic dance, and chose to adopt it in the urban context.