Blog By Knight
My First Dance Love -Zydeco

My friend Robyn started it all. When we were first knowing each other and I’d want her to come to a party or to the movies, every so often she would say “Oh, I can’t. I have a Zydeco dance I have to go to”. I had no idea what she was talking about. I thought it must be something like an adult equivalent of a high school drill team meeting.

Then, one day she invited several of us over to her house for Jambalaya and a zydeco lesson and she was going to take us to a Friday night zydeco dance. That was a momentous, life changing evening for me, except note to Robyn: skip the Jambalaya dinner before taking friends to dance. She took us to the Knights of Columbus Hall on Buford Highway. Cars were parked everywhere and you could feel the place hopping. Lil’ Malcolm, and his zydeco band from Louisiana were playing that night and I loved it.

I was 49 at the time and had never really partner danced before. I had tried Disco lessons in the seventies and that didn’t go so well ( bleh, I never really liked that music anyway). And I hadn’t danced since. My family is originally from Louisiana and the Zydeco music sort of reached out and grabbed me and the dancing well, it just made me happy. I decided that I was going to have to learn this dance and would go to the first workshop I found. It happened that there was a weekend workshop in Seattle, sand off I went to start my dancing career.

Well – it really isn’t a career, maybe more like an obsession. But dancing, Zydeco, Swing, Lindy Hop, Blues West Coast and now Tango (the daddy of them all), has taken me through some rough times and created many great times. Duane and I got together originally because we both loved to dance. I really don’t understand why more people don’t do it. It is a wonderful opportunity to have little three minute relationships with no strings attached. I ask you, unless you work in a massage parlor on Cheshire Bridge Road where else are you going to get that experience on a regular basis?

So you’re in luck this weekend you will have a chance to see Zydeco up close and personal. Atlanta’s very own, Zydeco T will be playing on SUNDAY, APRIL 27 from 3:30-4:30 PM on the World Music Stage. You can be sure that there will be hot dancing there. I am going to try to sneak away from my Wigwam Annex open house to get a few dances in.

Then on SATURDAY, MAY 3, LIL’ MALCOLM & THE HOUSE ROCKERS will be at the KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS (2620 Buford Highway NE. Atlanta 30324) from 8-11 PM. There will be a DANCE lesson from 7-8 PM before the band starts and they will have Cajun food for sale & Cash Bar. But remember, you might want to skip the Jambalaya. It’s really hard to go around in circles with a tummy full of andouille sausage.

Filed under Atlanta, Be a Better Person, Having Fun — Subscribe, Trackback,