This song is available on Wendy Rollin's Let's Dance!
It’s polka time!
This dance takes component parts of the polka – beat, circling, hopping and stopping –
and introduces them as four characters, each one appearing in succeeding verses.
Each is announced by rap-tap-tapping on the door. Everyone stands in a big circle.
See below for more action suggestions.
Each time these lines appear and reappear, each child taps his fist on a flat hand,
as if knocking at the door – for rap tap tap. Then on who is that knocking,
children cup their ears, as if to hear.
With a rap tap tap
And a rap tap tap
Who is that knocking at the door?
On the BeatKeeper verse, the children simply clap in time to the music. When the words say a-one two three etc., the children only clap on one-two three.
On the Circler verse, the children circle, slowly, in place. When we get to the words . . . Circle round and round . . .everyone joins hands and the whole circle of people spins around.
On the Hopper verse, the children hop slowly foot to foot.
Then when the words say . . . And a hop step step . . . they hop on one foot, step with the other foot, and step with the first foot . . . in a slowed half-time polka step.
If the children master the basic polka step, you could then double-time it.
On the Stopper verse, the children hold out their hands in a stop-gesture, pumping their hands slightly in and out to the beat. It is fun for them to eventually learn the last lines of the song so they can sing along with the singers,
“Stop this polka? Stop this polka!
Stop it, one two three!”
