Cajun Dance

By Julie Fontenot Landry

Cajun dance has evolved greatly over the years to what it is today. It has been influenced by European dance, by the Country-Western (Scotch-Irish) tradition, and by the "American" dances of the twentieth century.

Up until the turn of the twentieth century, most dancing among Cajuns was done at bals de maison, or "house dances." A family invited their friends and relatives over for a Saturday night or a Sunday afternoon, engaged whatever musicians were in the area, and prepared food and drink, which their guests supplemented. The largest room in the house was cleared of furniture, and chairs were lined against the walls for the ladies. The men generally remained outdoors or on the porch between dances, if the weather allowed, or in the kitchen or other room if it did not.

Among the dances that were popular at the bals de maison were the waltz, the two-step, the mazurka, the polka, and the schottische, all dances originally from Europe. The waltz and the two-step were done as they are now by the older generation: the couple moved in a counter-clockwise circle, with the woman dancing backwards and the man guiding her. Traditionally, only the feet and legs moved. The bodies of the dancers remained straight, and the dancers seemed to glide around the floor in a perfect circle.

The mazurka was usually accompanied by a waltz (3/4 time) tune and combined elements of the waltz with the traditional mazurka step. The steps of the polka and the schottische, both 2/4 or 4/4 time, were often mixed together and were accompanied by many of the same tunes used for the two-step.

Group dances were especially popular among the young people because they involved changing partners. Thus a boy who was too shy to ask a girl to dance for one of the couple dances might get a chance to hold her in his arms at least briefly during the group dances. In Louisiana as in France, the danses rondes, or "round dances," were the most popular because they enabled an indefinite number of couples to dance and because the partners of a couple could be members of either sex without embarrassing anyone. Some of the danses rondes, along with the songs that accompanied them, were used in Louisiana exactly as they had come from Europe; others were altered after they arrived; and some were original to Louisiana. Some were so well known that everyone was able to remember the sequences of steps; others were "called," as is done with the modern square dance.

The quadrille, which was the ancestor of the square dance, was also danced by the Cajuns but was not as popular as the danse ronde because it required "squares" of four couples. Both the danse ronde and the quadrille, however, used basically the same steps.

The ancestor of both the quadrille and the danse ronde, the contredanse, was also danced by the Cajuns. This dance, the name of which comes from both the English term "country dance" and from the formation of the dancers, is said to have entered France in the early eighteenth century and presumably came to Louisiana both directly from France and by way of Acadie (Canada) with the ancestors of the Cajuns. The contredanse is danced in two lines, with the partners facing each other. Usually five different "figures" were used, with the partners crossing each other, changing partners, circling, and moving in lines. Eventually, doing some of the steps in circles and in groups of four couples evolved into the danse ronde and quadrille, respectively, but the contredanse continued to be done in the its original form. Again, it never achieved, in Louisiana, the popularity of the danse ronde, no doubt because many of the figures of the contredanse required an even number of couples.

The Cajuns enjoyed their bals de maison so much that they held them even during the season of Lent, when "music" was forbidden by the Church. The Cajuns took this prohibition to refer to instrumental music only, and the dances continued to be held with the dancing accompanied only by one or more persons singing and the spectators tapping their toes.

By the 1920s, public dance halls had become quite popular among the Cajuns. Every Saturday night at places such as Abe's Place in Eunice and Toto Simoneaux's in the Scott/Carencro area, people young and old gathered for the fais do-do. As at the bals de maison, some families brought their children and put them to sleep on pallets on the floor. Increasingly, however mostly young people went to the dance halls to see and be seen (the girls usually were accompanied by their fathers), or couples left the children with "MawMaw" and "PawPaw or Vielle Mom and Vieux Pop. Typically when they themselves were not dancing, older men sat in chairs along one wall and older women in chairs on the opposite wall. By the 1930s, men who had trucks supplemented their incomes by providing transportation service to and from the dance halls.

As the dance halls became more adult in their clientele, the group dances once so popular, especially among the children and young teens, gave way to couple dances, some of which have largely been forgotten. Today it is rare to find anyone under the age of 80 who knows how to do the mazurka, the polka, or the schottische, and those who do tend to confuse them with each other. There is even a recorded Cajun song titled "Mazurka," but it is played in 4/4 time and thus cannot be used to accompany the dancing of a mazurka; moreover, some who say they are doing the polka are actually doing the schottische. Thus, for some, the schottische has in effect become the "polka cadienne."

In today's dance halls the waltz, the two-step, and the jig predominate. For the waltz and the two-step, the general movement is still counter-clockwise, but the dances resemble less and less their turn-of-the-century forms. The waltz is sometimes danced in the manner taught by schools of ballroom dance and may incorporate steps formerly used only in the group dances, and the two-steppers often deviate from the true-circle style of their ancestors. Often when the band is playing a two-step, some dancers are actually doing the "jitter-bug" of the 1940s and 1950s or the Country-Western "swing."

The "Cajun Jig," as it has currently evolved, is a combination of the two-step, the swing, the jitterbug, the group dances of the past, and even a little of the Scotch-Irish "jig." With its many showy turns, it is the choice of the highly energetic and is often what people are referring to when they say they want to learn to "Cajun dance." The jig is currently done by a couple, by a man and two women, or by two or more couples (perhaps representing a redevelopment of interest in group dances). The jig as it is danced today was unheard of before 1970 and did not really reach its current popularity until the 1980s.

With the addition of some "Zydeco" music selections to the repertoire of the Cajun band, more bouncy versions of the two-step and jig have appeared. Although Zydeco music used the same general times (3/4 and 4/4) as Cajun music, the instrumentation is different, and the rhythms are just different enough to require adjustments in dance style. When a peppy Zydeco tune is playing, more dancers are likely to switch to the jitter-bug, which lends itself better tot he often syncopated rhythms of Zydeco.

As the influence of Country-Western music has increased, Cajuns have started to do line dances, many of which originated with rock songs before they became identified with Country-Western. On just about any day or evening, when the band begins playing the "Hathaway Two-Step," people will flood the floor to do "The Freeze." Other line dances are also beginning to make inroads, also danced to common Cajun and Zydeco tunes.

From its inception Cajun dancing has been a family affair. From toddlers to great-grandparents Cajuns love to dance. At today's dance halls, which are more than likely restaurant / dance hall combinations open to all ages, everyone who can walk is on the dance floor at some point. If there is a shortage of men, women dance together. On Mardi Gras, when all rules are cast to the winds, men sometimes dance together, but this is not usually the case. Otherwise, any combination of partners is possible.

Some Cajuns do not like the "new" way people dance the waltz and the two-step and often abhor the Cajun jig and the line dances. Others point out that Cajun dance, like all other parts of the culture, is constantly evolving, and that this evolution serves to demonstrate that Cajun culture is a living, vibrant culture, not a dead relic. As today's Cajun cooking incorporates elements from the cuisines of many other cultures and is a far cry from the bland dishes eaten by their cousins who were left behind in Acadie, so Cajun dance will continue to evolve, probably getting spicier and spicier.