Dance in the North, On the Levee, & in New Orleans

This section of the webpage will focus on the studies of dance in New Orleans.

Student will learn how dance in New Orleans was very complex and Afro-centric, with different style of dance such as Congo Square, Calind Dance and the Baboula.

Dance in New Orleans

Dance in New Orleans was very complex and Afro-centric, with different style of dance such as Congo Square, Calinda Dance and the Baboula. Calinda was described as the Voodoo dance that was brought to Louisiana from San Domingo and the Antilles by slaves. (America). Calinda is described as a martial art, as well as kind of folk music and dance in the Carribean whoh arose in the 1720s (America). Calinda is a kind of stick-fighting commonly seen practiced during Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago (America). The Calinda was a popular dance documented by white observers that was practiced in the Congo Square. The photo below was drawn to depict the Calinda Dance in New Orleans.

The Congo Square had a different sound of smaller drums, clanging triangles, echoes of bare feet which combined different Afro-Cuban sounds of the Congo. (Emery). The city leaders allowed the slaves to congregate, but outside the city, in an open area just outside the original city, north of Rampart Street. This area became known as the Place des Negres, more commonly as Place Congo (Branley). Congo Square was the place where black slaves could once again be Africans, even if for just one afternoon a week. They would bring drums, bells, and other musical instruments to the square and gather, roughly by tribe, to play music, sing, and dance (Branley). The photo dsiplays an example of how African americans use to gather at the Congo Square and share their African roots.

The Bamboula was a popular Negro/ Creole slave dance in Lousisiana. The Bamboula dance however was very frantic, roared, rattled, twanged, contorts tumbles. And lasted for quite a while. The Banjo was used as a musical instrument as well as other instruments (Watson). Musicians sit kinda in a circle and play a bamboula melody which is characterized by a precise rhythm, while some of the women form a "chorus", singing and clapping their hands, and the men bow and the ladies curtsy (Watson). The musicians would play the Bamboula for hours, changing rhythms during their span of playing. As time goes on, even the spectators would get caught up in the dance. It has been written (The Century Magazine, a popular quarterly vol. 31, issue 4, Feb. 1886) that the Bamboula dance was eventually stopped by the police in Congo Square and only the music survived. It has been reported that the Bamboula dance still survives in the Virgin Islands and the music is danced too during Mardi Gras in New Orleans by the "Bamboula Queens" ( Watson). The photo below displays drawings of a bamboo. 

WORKS CITED

Branley, Edward. "NOLA History: Congo Square and the Roots of New Orleans Music." N.p., 2 July 2012. Web. <http://gonola.com/2012/07/02/nola-history-congo-square-and-the-roots-of…;

Emery, Fauley Lynne “Black Dance from 1619 to Today.” Dance Horizons: Princeton Book Company 1988. Second Revised Edition

Of America, French Creoles. "The Calinda Dance." French Creole. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.frenchcreoles.com/ArtTheater/CalindaDance/calindadance.htm&gt;.

Watson, Sonny. "Title." BAMBOULA DANCE (Spirit of Ancestors)|Congo Square. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3bmbla1.htm&gt;.