Page 45 - "It is Wrong, Wrong to Dance"?? An Introduction to Cheticamp-Area Dance Prohibition with Folklorist Barbara LeBlanc

ISSUE : Issue 51

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1989/1/1

not all of them--but in many of them they'd make a kind of gradation of dance. There'd be three categories. They called them honest dance. They called it honnete. Dangereux--dangerous. And what was the third category?--really, perilous--there would have been another word that meant that that was it, you were condemned if (you danced) the third category, you know. And so in the first category, what they'd do--now I'm talking about the theologians --they would say that honest dance was like, oh, you know, the child, like saute- rie was the French word--jumpings up and down. And they'd give examples, but like examples from far away. Like they'd say an Australian tribe, you know, or this Span? ish dance--you know, they'd name some lit? tle community-type of (dance). Like it would have been a ronde, probably, that they're referring to. Something very child-like, you know. And then the dangerous dances--people had trouble with the next two categories. Beause some theologians would put danger? ous dances in the perilous ones. And vice versa, depending. But one thing is for sure, the waltz was in the worst kind, in the third category. Because that really-- or the tango. Or any of those. Because to them, too, of course--underlying all that, was basically the whole idea of Christian social order. Because to them, to have an ordered society, you had to have the family unit functioning. And for them. BATTERED WOIVIEN ... AND YOUR CHILDREN. IF YOU NEED HELP, CALL: 539-2945 TRANSITION HOUSE "For all your insurance needs • call me and compare" HOME • BUSINESS LIFE . • TENANTS CAR . . BOAT R.R.S.P. LLOYD MOORE 539-1105 • IN WELTON PLAZA 288 Welton Street, Sydney, N. S. B1P 5S2 /lllstate buVe in good hands. dance was a danger to the existing family unit. Be? cause when people danced together, it awakened the pas? sions, you know. And so that if that occurred, you could have, for example, pregnancy outside of wedlock, which was totally--I mean, if anything was taboo, that was taboo. And so it was all attached to that type of conno? tation, too. It wasn't the only one, but it was one of the very strong ones.... So for them, dance was a peril, because it placed, for a short time and maybe longer, the order in disorder. So they feared it for that reason. That's what I feel. (But the other part of it may simply have been concern for their mortal soul.) Oh, well, of course, because then, yes--well, the whole dichotomy between body and spirit, too, that the church has al? ways, you know. That anything attached to the body was sin? ful. And so, because dance was kind of the body par excel? lence, you know. And then, the other thing is that dance, though, among the people-- you have kind of two things happen? ing. You had the social control that the dance itself was. Because all the things that it could be from a negative point of view could also be positive. Because it was a meeting place. People--it was courting, be? cause dance was THE BEST IN LOCAL. REGIONAL- NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT • July 14 The Barra MacNeils • July 15 Men of the Deeps • July 16 Sheffield Girls' Choir • July 17 The Cape Breton Symphony • July 18 The Sattalites (reggae) • July 19 The Open Road Band (Celtic rock) 'July 20 Weavers' Fashion Show 'July 21 'July 23 Sappy 1 Dan Hill 'July 22 'July 24. 25 Tommy Makem The Mabou Jig 'July 26 John Grade 'July 27 "Janis Joplin: Buried Alive in the Blues" 'July 28 Buddy Wassisname & the Other Felle s| 'July 29 Frank Mills 'July 30 Peter Appleyard (jazz) • July 31 Matt Minglewood • August 1 Atlantic String Quartet 'August 2 Lorena McKennet • August 3 Elmer Iseler Singers • August 4 ' August 4 (Arena) Sappy 2 Terry Kelly 'August5, 6,7 'Down North": St. Ann's Bay Players • August 8 Murray McLaughlin • August 9 Paul Hann (children's show) 'August 10,11,12 Cape Breton Summertime Revue • August 13-19 Mulgrave Road Co-op Theatre (2 one-act plays) TICKETS: phone 295-3044 or write FESTIVAL Box 66, Baddeck, N. S. BOE 1 BO

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