The Spicy Two-Step

The six of us went to Swamp Fest at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans last Sunday and we discovered there is more than one way to do the two-step!

Swamp Fest is a festival held annually at the zoo when vendors set up tents and there are special zoo exhibits and activities offered. NO Cajun festival would be complete without music and brew, so there were bands and beer vendors there, too!

Animals and music are enough to entertain our family. The kids got to pet a porcupine and animals in the petting zoo. Madalynn (without flinching) and Justis (very bravely) petted a snake. We took in several of the zoo exhibits before wandering into the food and cultural activities.

Dawson needed to get his boogie on! He shook his tush (and therefore his whole body), and he couldn't stop moving to the distant sounds of a band playing. We didn't even have to lead the kids to the band. They just followed the music and there we were, right in front of a stage.

A good ol' Cajun Grandpa with his fiddle, loud shirt, cowboy boots, and a straw hat, stood front and center on stage. His teenage granddaughter accompanied him with her fiddle, while the band (complete with a real bass) played behind them. Grandpa and granddaughter were singing in French, to boot!

Couples of all ages were gettin' down on the grass in front of the stage doing the most interesting pair dancing we'd ever seen. Cajun music and culture just lends itself to dancing, so the kids were already gyrating to the music as we all looked on from the sidewalk. Travis and I looked quizzically at the dancers, wondering what dance they were doing. We finally realized, after several minutes of looking on, that they were simply doing the two-step (as we Kansans know it)! They were adding in so many of their freestyle moves to the two-step, it took us a minute to figure out. Their version of the two step was fun to watch and (gauging from the dancers' excitement) fun to do and these people were great at it! Obviously, it's just the way a two-step is done down here. I now call it the Spicy Two-Step.

Madalynn and Travis wasted no time in stepping onto the "dance floor." Their two-step was decidedly Kansan, but they had just as much fun, nonetheless. I told the boys about the instruments the band was playing and what language they were singing in, while we watched Travis and Madalynn from the sidewalk. Dawson has got "the moves," and music, quite literally, just moves him. He was dying to get out and dance, so Travis took Daws out for a spin, too!

Jillian, Madalynn and I all got our chance to Dance near the big stage to the music of a band called Rockin' Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters. Travis and the boys relaxed on the grass and Madalynn, Jillian and I went to the concrete slab in front of the stage and free styled it! Normally, I would NEVER feel comfortable "free styling it," but Cajun music just begs for dancing AND nobody in Louisiana cares what your dancing looks like (especially after some of them have had a few too many). Louisiana is certainly a hodge-podge of ideas and cultures, so nothing surprises the people here, they expect "different." Thank goodness, because my free styling is quite "different," to say the least! ;)

Madalynn LOOKED like she was full-blooded Cajun when she danced solo. I can't explain to you the style of dancing down here, but Madalynn picked it up quite quickly, threw all caution to the wind and twirled and moved like I've never seen her go before!

Bud is one of Travis's employees who's nearing retirement, and he and his wife, Sunny, spend almost every weekend going to Louisiana festivals. Sunny told Travis their favorite thing to do and, many times the reason for going in the first place, is to listen and dance to the music. I understand their passion now!