SAXTONS RIVER — Caribbean dance moves that follow the drummer's call are the focus of a series of workshops led by Julian Gerstin beginning Thursday, April 10, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The workshops will focus on the little-known and seldom-seen traditions of quadrille and biguine dance as practiced in the Lesser Antilles, principally the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Main Street Arts is sponsoring the workshops, which will continue Thursdays, May 8 and June 12, at the Chivers Center on the campus of Vermont Academy in Saxtons River.
Gerstin explains that the basic choreography of Caribbean contradance is an entry circle, then two squares of four people each, then couples.
“Martinique's wonderful traditions of bèlè and lalin klé bring together European line and quadrille choreography with funky African movements,” he says.
He describes it as “like American contras, but you wiggle your hips. For our first class, I'll teach kanigwé to get us started, and then some steps for bèlè beguine. There are a lot of steps, and once you know some of them you get to choose which ones to do.”
Actually, he says, the women get to choose: “The men are supposed to follow them. But they don't always do that either. There's a lot of play in these dances.”
Gerstin is an enthnomusicologist and percussionist specializing in the music of Africa and the Caribbean. He appears with the Caribbean/Mideastern jazz group As Yet Quintet, the Afrocuban dance ensemble Grupo Palo Santo, the Cajun band Lil' Orphans, and Brattleboro's Brass Band Project, and co-leads the Latin Jazz Ensemble at the Vermont Jazz Center.