Well, some of us passed a good time at Dancing in Streets on Sunday. (Note: Down in Louisiana people would say they “passed a good time” instead of “had a good time” as folks would say up here in the north.) Creole du Nord played for an hour and 15 minutes, and a fair number of folks did some dancing in the streets.
Dancers dancing in the street
Dancing in the streets is of course a tad more difficult than dancing in a proper dance hall since most streets have a crown (high spot down the middle, sloping down towards the curbs) for drainage, not to mention there are cracks and patches and other obstacles in the road. Yes, even the painted lines down the middle are slippery compared to the friction of asphalt. But it’s still fun to dance out in the open air to good music.
The Creole du Nord band
I have to confess this was first time I had actually heard Creole du Nord play for a dance, although I have jammed with them in the past, and they were excellent. Good, solid Cajun two-step beats, plus steady syncopated zydeco dance rhythms. Mark Palms was really getting into some zydeco accordion licks, too. I had thought that Creole du Nord mostly stuck to Cajun music, but it was a pleasant surprise to hear them play a number of zydeco tunes to mix it up.
Susan Filipiak provided some dance instruction for the Cajun and zydeco dancing, and it was doled out in small portions. She taught a basic two-step, then the band played a few tunes, then Susan taught a bit more about the dancing, then the band played, and so on. I thought that was good as sometimes when we try to teach new folks to dance we throw too much at them at once!
There was, of course, much more at Dancing in the Streets. The ballroom/swing dance area with the II-V-I Orchestra seemed particularly well attended, plus there were some folks at the contra dance area, and the Middle Eastern dance area drew a fair number of onlookers to a dance demo. I did get to see some old friends from my contra-dancing days, and who knows, I may try to do some contra-dancing again soon, although I’m sure my cranky knees would complain!