3 easy Cajun dance steps you can learn right now

If you know anything about south Louisiana you know we're all about good music, good food, good people and good dancing. Chances are, you won't run into one without the other, and when they do converge you'll get happy people with happy feet just a dancin' the night and étouffée away.

You see, something happens when an accordion takes that first long draw of a note. If that's not code, then, at the least it's very probably Pavlovian because around here, when folks hear that chord, they know to get ready to dance.

Basically, there are three dance steps to Cajun music: the two-step, Cajun Jitterbug and the waltz.

Of course, there are versions of those dances like the Mamou Two-Step and the Whiskey River Two-Step, Whiskey River Jitterbug, the Cajun Jig. At the same time, these dances are liberally sprinkled with frills, steps and moves and names, too, such as The Sweetheart, The Sweetheart Slide, Double Turn-Under, Loose Hands, Scissorhands, Windmill, the Duck-Under, Big/Little Window and even a Broken Window.

Since 1999, Corey Porche has led Cajun and zydeco dance classes everywhere. Really. Here. There. Everywhere: Washington. Denmark, New York. France. Canada. And here at home for the Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Week and Folkroots Kid's Camp.

If he'd been born 20 years earlier, he probably would've hitched a ride on an Apollo mission and taught dancing on the moon.

Porche said men always start on their left foot and women always on their right.

"It's important to engage all of our natural shocks," said Porche. "Instead of dancing with flat feet, being slightly on the balls of your feet as well as bending your knees a little will help to look like you're dancing instead of doing the Frankenstein."

Cajun Jitterbug

When asked what the difference was between the Cajun Jitterbug and the Jitterbug from the Big Band days, Porche responded: "Nothing," he smiled. "Nothing. It's similar to a swing dance that they just call the 'triple step.'"

A pause and Porche continues: "Except we relax it a little bit," he said. "We don't like to use that much energy, so we only do step, tap, you know, instead of triple steps."

So you'll "step, tap, step, tap, rock, step," said Porche.

The two-step

"It's basically two steps in one direction and two steps in the other direction," said Porche.

"I teach side-to-side so that people can understand the weight changes," he said. "It's like when you walk. Every time you take a step, all of your weight goes onto that leg. So, I get people to understand that so when I say, 'Step, step, step, tap,' that they know that every time I tell them to step, they're going to switch their feet and switch their weight. And then a 'tap,' your weight stays on that foot and you're tapping with your other foot."





The Waltz

Think 1. 2,3. 1. 2,3.

"The waltz is like walking. You just walk," said Porche. "It's just a slightly larger step and then two small steps. One foot after the other, just like you'd walk naturally."

Dancing with the star

My dad was a product of the Big Band era, as well as a WWII vet. And, man, oh, man, he loved to cut the rug.

I recall a young me "dancing" with him while standing atop his shiny black steel-toed shoes. He also taught me to jitterbug when I was a pre-teen. As I hit teenhood, he wasn't a fan of the J. Geils Band or Alice Cooper music that would waft upstairs from the recroom, but he did like Chicago. Guess it was the horns.

When I was about 20, I had a party at my new digs and invited my dad. As I was heading from the kitchen to the living room where the record player was spinning Jerry Lee Lewis or Glenn Miller (the apple rolled only so far from the tree), three women were leaning against the wall near a closed bathroom door.

I let them know there was another bathroom upstairs that they could use. They just smiled and shook their heads.

"Oh, no," one said. "We're waiting to dance with your dad."

— Dominick Cross