Just for a week, the St. John School of the Arts is offering three nights of Zydeco dance lessons — Monday, Thursday and Friday, Feb. 21, 24 and 25.
Zydeco is a blend of French/Spanish Creole dance music with African rhythms and chants. The lead instrument is the accordion, with backup on rub board, drum and guitar. In Louisiana, this partner dancing is a popular expression of community and culture.
The classes on St. John are being taught by Heidi Enrenreich, a dance/movement therapist who travels to Louisiana yearly and teaches with the Hot House Zydeco Band at its monthly dances in Massachusetts.
If the world music appeal of this "funky French rocking boogie" isn't enough, a flyer from the school says, consider tha Zydeco dancing is also "social, exercise and fun."
The classes are being held at the school, located up from the Legislature Building in Cruz Bay. The first takes part Monday, Feb. 21, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The second is Thursday, Feb. 24, from 8 to 9:30 p.m. The final class, on Friday, Feb. 25, is a review of the previous sessions and a fais do do dance party.
Each class is $10. To register, call the school at 779-4322 or just show up for the first class.
