I hear ya Greg, so here's the best I can do for you.
You asked a question aboout "traditional" dance with the trem "jitterbug" in the question.
I assume you're refering to traditional Cajun dance ??? Well....... the jitterbug is not, and never has been, a "traditional" dance for Cajun music.
The traditional dance for Cajun is the waltz and two-step and they came here with the original exiled Acadians in 1755. I'm sure the waltz can be traced back to France. The jitterbug worked it's way into Cajun music exactly when you stated, in the 40's.
We used to have a Cajun festival here in my home town of Port Arthur, Texas ( back when I was young, we called it Port Arthur, Louisiana because there were more Cajuns here than any other ethnic group). We held a dancing contest where the contestants were required to dance a waltz and two-step.
Anyone who attempted to do the "jitterbug" was disqualified.
Hope this helps you better understand the traditional Cajun dance.
Jude

Dear Jude,

Waltz, Mazurka and other pair dances developed quite late in Europe (And France) Before, there where the row and figure dances (or square dance/Quadrille), so either the Acadians were very modern, or the Waltz and two step came in with the new immigrants from France directly to LA. If you want to have numbers and years, I have to look it up for you.
Gus

Jude I am glad you jumped in... Greg, we're fine pal.

So traditional is composed of: 2 step and waltz

While there exists to be German French speaking whites of Louisiana. There had to have been some old traditional steps that included Polka and the Muzurka as mentioned, at one time (my guess). I am not sure if the French Acadian whites considered the German faction as Cajuns.. or if it simply evolved to include Germans that spoke French, and simply called it French speaking people to represent the population as a whole.
There had to have been an influence on both Acadians and Germans. While the German segment were also farmers, I wonder if they introduced the sausage making (boudin and blood boudin) technique. Another couriosity, would be the dance forms of the black and Creole segments stemming from Africa, Haiti and the creole pipeline into the south including Louisiana. I am only guessing, that much of that segment was stiffled by the church, so that a lot of the cultural identity was stripped in any expressive forms of yet a differant method of dance for conformity. We are talking a differant form of music/dance that may be linked to celibrating carnival and forms of religion which would have differed greatly.

Thoughts? Ideas?

I think a person could drive himself crazy trying to figure out how any of this stuff in our culture came to be. I always compare it to a good gumbo, you just throw a whole bunch of Acadians, Napolean soldiers, black creoles from all over, Germans, Irish, whatever else, give it a good stir, let it simmer a good while, and there you got a good pot of Cajun language, music, danse, and food.

On the danse thing, where does the old contredanse fit it? I think it is French, but I'm not sure. Before the 1900's the contredanses, mazurkas, and polka were apparently popular, but for how long I dont know. Then there is the Colinda.....

In many countries it was not done to dance in couples until quite recently. Look f.e. in Brttany (France, where most of the dances are row dances. (Poitou, where people emigrated to LA, quite the same. Great Brittain also, more figure dances, but little contact between man and wife, less close than in Mazurka, Polka, Waltz, Schottish.).

Reason, moral! People (and church) were very conservative at that time.

(will be away for some days, afterwards will try to find something about dances in history).

Gus
Gus

Someone who used to post on this forum found this website a few years ago when the subject was discussed. Greg, you might like to explore these collections.

Christian

Well, answered my question here, kinda, site #3.

Excellent resource. This will take a while to go through. Really trying to visualize what the early 1900's house dance would have looked like and wondering if anyone tries to capture that feel using period music and dance. Thanks to all who have replied.
Greg

Try to find this CD ("Le Quadrille acadien" by Gérard Dôle/link above). He has recreated the music that people would dance to in Louisiana in the old days, with the help of several old Cajun musicians (Sady Courville, Frémont Fontenot...).

Christian

Hi Bryan and everyone
As someone who appreciates the Cajun culture, I enjoyed two books by Carl A Brasseaux , which discuss the history and evoloution of cajun people and culture. They are: "Acadian to Cajun, Transformation of a people, 1807-1877"(1992), and "French, Cajun, Houma, Creole, A Primer on Francophone Louisiana" (2005). They can be ordered on Amazon.com
Carl A Brasseaux is an amazing scholar and heads the Centre for Cultural and Eco Tourism at USL.
http://ccet.louisiana.edu/02a_Center_Associates_Bios/Brasseaux_Carl_A.html

He comes to mind when there is any questions of how, why...

If you read anything by Carl, its as close to fact as can be, he does his homework. Me, I'm a speculator.

Jude,
I was on business in eastern Texas during the Folk life festival. I love to dance, so when they said they were having a Cajun dance contest, I grabbed a local girl (who ended up being the state champion in corn shucking, but that's a different story) and jumped on the floor.

Well, to my surprise, they were doing a "different" two step. I one I knew was what I would call an "even" two step. (same number of steps on each side) They were doing one where you do a different number of steps with each foot.

Which two-step did you learn growing up?
Which two-step do you think is "more" traditional?

DP