Jambalaya

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

“Are you going to that Jambalaya thing again tonight?” My husband didn’t know how accurate his slipup was. Jambalaya: any miscellaneous collection or gathering. TRJE is a wonderful miscellaneous collection of people who gather together for a unified purpose. While from the outside it looks like that purpose is drumming and dancing, the inside truth is that it is so much more.This evening I was a few minutes late but the circle always opens to let newcomers in. The lead in question was already being passed around. This time it was, “How many people have you greeted today?” I was surprised at the number of people we had all greeted. There were a few new people in the circle this time but they quickly learned by observation how to respond; “My name is ___________. I’m the daughter/son of _____________.” There was a new person sitting next to me who needed a little prompting but while she was shy in the circle she quickly overcame her shyness when she joined in the dance class. FeyFey expounded a little more on the importance of greeting people, especially in their own language. There’s that jambalaya thing again; I love it! The elders never miss a teaching opportunity. It certainly a whole lot more than drumming and dancing. He also discussed the upcoming events and broke the good news to us outsiders that tonight was a celebration in honor of Moustapha Bangoura’s return. After the dancing lesson, there would be plenty of food in the adjoining room and the next day would be a family fun day at a bowling alley. Following that announcement, everyone broke up to prepare for Mr. Bangoura’s dance class.The usual students gathered on the dance floor to do warm ups led by Joann, one of the dance instructors. Joanne has studied dance for years and has a daughter in TRJE. There were a few potential TRJE members out on the floor and also their parents waiting in the wings. The observers are always welcome whether they know anyone involved or not. While Joanne got everyone limbered up, the drummers took instruction from Mr. Bangoura. He would demonstrate a beat or call out instructions and the drummers played accordingly. Then Moustapha joined the dancers and went through a series of new dancesteps. One of his students from Chicago had driven all the way down to help. She was an accomplished dancer who obviously had learned under Moustapha’s expert eye. The format was identical to last week. The drummers kept up a steady beat while Moustapha’s protégé demonstrated the move they would be practicing. Then a row of dancers, usually three abreast, would dance toward the drummers, break off and circle around to try again while the next rows moved up. Their instructor kept a close eye on each dancer and demonstrated by example how to improve their technique.When class was over, we all headed next door to a wonderful spread of food that everyone seemed to have contributed to. There was chicken, ribs, macaroni and cheese, salad, rice, vegetables, fish soup, and homemade peach cobbler and banana pudding. Before we ate, the parents stood around talking amiably and then we gathered for a blessing. While we ate, I talked with some of the parents.