What’s the ballroom polka got to do to get some respect in this state?
Yes, it was another year of disappointment for Ansonia’s Peter Danielczuk. He’s tried unsuccessfully for three years to have the Ballroom Polka named the official state polka.
“I’m disappointed. I thought this might have been the year for the state polka song,” said Danielczuk, an Ansonia native known as “Connecticut’s Prince of Polka Music.”
Written by the late polka songwriter and Windsor native Ray Henry in the mid 1960s, the Ballroom Polka is a standard for polka musicians, and has a soft spot in the hearts of polka lovers in the Naugatuck Valley.
The Ballroom Polka was king in the 1950s and 60s, when hundreds danced the polka every Saturday night at Warsaw Park in Ansonia. Those who attended the dances remember how even before Ray Henry and his orchestra played the first note of the song, everyone ran to the dance floor to whirl and jump to the tune.
“It’s a crowd pleaser that always gets people to the dance floor,” said Danielczuk, 57, who has been hosting polka radio shows in Connecticut for some 30 years. He can be heard these days on Sunday mornings on WDJZ in Bridgeport.
Danielczuk is also a member of the city’s Board of Alderman — but even his political connections couldn’t push the polka through.
State Sen. Joe Crisco, D‑Woodbridge, and State Rep. Linda Gentile, D‑Derby, have co-sponsored bills for three consecutive years to designate the Ballroom Polka as the official state polka.
But each year, the bill fails to get approved.
This year, while lawmakers debated the death penalty and wrangled over a looming state budget deficit, the Ballroom Polka won swift approval in the Government Administration and Elections Committee.
But it died after it was attached to a Senate bill that didn’t get called up before the Legislature adjourned on June 3, Crisco said.
Crisco said he’ll continue to sponsor bills until Connecticut has an official state polka song. The symbolic designation would pay tribute to the contributions of Polish-Americans in the Naugatuck Valley, he said
“The Polish community is very important in the Valley,” Crisco said.
Had the bill passed, Connecticut would have been the third state in the nation to adopt an official polka song, joining Wisconsin and Massachusetts.
Helen Ptak, who organized dances at Warsaw Park during polka’s heyday, remembers the good times at the Polish National Home in Hartford on Tuesdays night in the 1950s when Ray Henry played.
“Ray Henry was from our generation. He was a great musician, one of the greatest,” said Ptak, 76.
Ptak said polka dances in the Valley don’t draw the crowds they used. Those who used to attend have either died or moved to a warmer climate.
“It’s so sad. Every week you read in the paper that someone else has passed on from the polka field,” she said.
Danielczuk won’t give up until the Ballroom Polka gets the recognition he feels it deserves. Polka holds a special place in his heart. After all, he met his late wife Maryann at a polka dance at Warsaw Park.
The band, of course, played the Ballroom Polka.
“One day we’ll have our official state polka song,” Danielczuk said.
