The polonaise made its first appearances in stylized dance music in the late 16th century. With his own polonaises, Chopin also declared his allegiance to his native Poland. In a way, the genre had fascinated him since his childhood. His earliest printed work was a Polonaise (KK IIa no. 1 in g minor), which he had written at the age of seven. The first three posthumously published Polonaises op. 71 as well as KK IVa nos. 1╩3, 5 and 8 are juvenilia from the Warsaw years. The mature works begin wi