The news that teenagers could soon be learning the ins-and-outs of disco-polo at school has raised eyebrows across Poland. The label’s backing could mean that leading disco-polo stars such as Zenek Martyniuk could visit the school to pass on their expertise and advice.

He has also enlisted the support of Green Star, a disco-polo record label. The music’s cheerful and up-beat rhythms provide the soundtrack for parties and small-town discos across the country, and have ingrained themselves into the local culture.

“Our main goal is to create the conditions for our young people to develop their passions as well as providing them with an education and preparing them for their leaving exams,” the mayor wrote in a letter to local cultural institutions. The school in Michałowo lies in a disco-polo hotbed so the courses should prove popular. The classes are part of a proposal formulated by Marek Nazarko, the mayor of Michałowo, a small town to the east of Białystok, who believes a course in disco-polo could help attract artistic children to the school and unleash the creative energy of its students. Pupils at a high school in the east of Poland could soon be attending classes on disco-polo, the indigenous music genre that invokes either joy or the depths of despair depending on the tastes of the listener. The classes are part of a proposal formulated by the mayor of Michałowo who believes a course in disco-polo could help attract artistic children to the school.

Muzyka disco polo akcent