Information: A dance.

Translation: Break, or interruption

Pronunciation: PREH-kid KO-lo

Region: Serbian in style, American recreational international folk dance in origin.

Prekid came on the United States folk-dance scene in 1961, and when I first saw it I suspected someone had just made it up here because they liked the music. The tune is a composition by a famous 1950s Serbian accordionist named Krnjevać, in Belgrade. The little "break" in Part I of the music is what gives the tune its name Prekid (break, interruption). The story goes that the Kolo was learned by a Barbara Walsh (married name Barbara Walsh Hill), from Seattle, in Yugoslavia in 1960. The original notes were written by Stan Leszynski of Seattle. I had never "believed" the dance, but had no evidence that it was outright invented, just intuition.

Actually, Barbara made up the dance in her kitchen (some say basement) during an informal gathering of recreational folk dancers. She avoided Dick Crum for weeks afterwards, not realizing that he did not think any the less of her for creating the dance.