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...).
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
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?
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
