Witold Lutoslawski was born in Poland in 1913 and began to study the piano at the age of six. He began his studies in composition in 1928 with Witold Maliszewski and in 1930, under Maliszewski's tutelage, he composed his first work, Dance of the Chimera for solo piano, which was performed two years later at a public concert at the Warsaw Conservatory. He considered, however, his debut as a composer to be the 1938 performance of Symphonic Variations. The Second World War interrupted Lutoslawski's promising artistic career and he spent the occupation in Warsaw. He earned a living as a pianist in the "Sztuka i Moda" and "U Aktorek" cafés, playing together with Andrzej Panufnik. The only work that has survived from that period is his wonderful Variations on a Theme of Paganini for two pianos (1941). After the war, Lutoslawski settled permanently in Warsaw. He began his conducting career in 1963, with the premiere of his Three Poems of Henri Michaux for choir and orchestra (1961-63) and remained both an active composer and conductor throughout his life.

Although his compositional style changed during the course of his career, he never felt he belonged to any "school" of composition, nor did he succumb to the trends and fashions in the music world nor participate in any avant garde revolutions. He was however both avant garde and traditional in his approach to composition. Among the aesthetic crossroads of the second half of the twentieth century, he found his own path led by his unfailing artistic sense. His music is a model of the ideal balance between form and content, intellect and emotion.

The Dance Preludes were written in 1954 and are filled with elements of folk melodies and folk rhythms.

The Dance Preludes were later arranged for clarinet, strings, harp, piano and percussion and even later for wind quintet, violin, viola, cello and double bass.