"The East Bay is the next best thing to Louisiana," says Danny Poullard, an accordion player who the Thompsons call the granddaddy of the Bay Area Cajun scene. Co-founder of the California Cajun Orchestra, the 56-year-old Louisiana-born Poullard got his start playing the diatonic (button) accordion in the late '60s at local Creole Catholic church dances where immigrants from Louisiana--many of whom came to the Bay Area during World War II to build ships in San Francisco and Richmond--gathered to eat gumbo and dance the way they had back home.

David Nadel began booking Cajun-zydeco bands at Ashkenaz in 1980; a year later he was featuring Queen Ida once a month. The California Cajun Orchestra took over her slot a couple of years later when she began to tour more frequently.

Several area teachers are now coaching students in Cajun-zydeco couple dancing, but Berkeley's Diana Castillo is the acknowledged pioneer. Originally from Austin, Texas, she moved to the Bay Area from New Orleans in 1986 and found people floundering the dance floor at Ashkenaz. "When I first went to see the California Cajun Orchestra the dance floor was filled, but with the exception of three or four couples, most did not know the proper steps." recalls Castillo, a veteran dance instructor who says she soon found her classes overflowing with eager participants.

"Initially I thought it was fad, but it's gone way past that. In Texas I had mailing list of 1,500 people. I've got twice that number here in the Bay Area, and many of them show up regularly at the shows.

When is the craze going to end? It's not. The dance concerts have become family-oriented events much like what happens in Louisiana, where people of all ages come together and dance to the uplifting beat. It's a guaranteed good time.

Excepted from The Monthly

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