If
you are not ready to commit to a dance camp, you can go to dozens
of major Cajun/zydeco festivals across the nation, such as the following:
by Tom Dempsey
As advertised, the October 1996 DanceFest with Motordude Zydeco at Suttle Lake, Oregon, provided dancers with great fun and gourmet food. Nearly 30 people from the Seattle area attended, including Jill Shea, who said "I had one of the most fun weekends of my life!" Those who participated say that dance camps are a great way to rejuvenate, meet new and long-time friends, and learn new dance styles.
As a break from winter hibernation, you can always dream about going to a dance camp next year. The following dance camps feature zydeco/Cajun workshops, great bands, idyllic settings, and on-site lodging. Please call to confirm future dates [some dates are updated for 1998]:
by Julia Hecht. Summer 1996.
Summer camp brings back wonderful childhood memories, so I jumped at the chance of returning to camp — plus dancing zydeco and Mamou Jitterbug for a week! Every July, the Augusta Heritage Center offers "Cajun and Creole Week" at Elkins, in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. (See article above for address.)
My friendly fellow campers came from every corner of North America, including six from Seattle. Over 50 students took dancing, and 180 took classes on instruments from Cajun accordion to flat-pick guitar, plus classes on Cajun French heritage, Louisiana crafts, traditions, weaving, and wood-working. Everyone joined in for evening concerts and dances.
This year’s music faculty included: Chris Ardoin and Double Clutchin’ (a very hot, very young zydeco band); Bois Sec Ardoin; Balfa Toujours (that great Cajun band fresh from their Northwest visit); and members of the California Cajun Orchestra.
We danced in an open-sided wooden pavilion at the edge of the woods bordering the campus of Davis and Elkins College. Balfa Toujours and Double Clutchin’ generously provided exactly the right music for every move in the dance classes. After lunch every day, musicians played songs and talked about their lives and music.
As part of the traditional zydeco dance class, Mona Wilson and Michael Seider taught a vintage step, the Besbas ("bend low"), a mazurka done to particular waltzes. When Michael asked Sean Ardoin, the 27-year-old drummer for Double Clutchin’, what variations dancers do on the Besbas, Sean replied, "Most of the folks who do that dance, they’re dead!" Nevertheless, Sean’s 48-year-old dad, Lawrence, who manages the band, showed how he uses the dance in his own styling. Sean and Mona also demonstrated the newest of new ("nouveau") zydeco — you should have seen them move! This November, you may have seen Michael and Mona teach at Living Traditions’ Zydeco Mania Weekend in Seattle.
Each evening after dinner, if you had any energy left, you could take 75-minute "mini-classes" on rubboard, Cajun dancing, clogging, or early country harmony singing. I tried rubboard. For the student showcase at week’s end, I performed in "Tammy and the Trains," a rubboard drill team! (Tammy Ledet, an Ardoin cousin related to zydeco artist Rosie Ledet by marriage, played rubboard for Double Clutchin’ that week). Mona choreographed our drill team. Remarkably, as we practiced, Mona took a nap amid the cacophony of a dozen novice rubboard players scraping away!
After days of classes and evenings of concerts and dances, pick-up groups of musicians jammed into the wee hours on the broad wooden porch of a restored mansion. Dancers joined them to catch a last waltz, or to refuel on Cajun-spiced popcorn from a snack bar set in the old "ice house." After a couple of hot and sticky days and nights, the weather turned heavenly. Fireflies twinkled in the bushes, stars spattered the sky, and mist veiled the hollows. I was transported back to childhood summer camp.
If
you are not ready to commit to a dance camp, you can go to dozens
of major Cajun/zydeco festivals across the nation, such as the following:
