Dancing to anchor yourself in Quebec culture

Students from the Rimouski-Neigette Training Center, mainly from the francization program, became acquainted with traditional Quebec dances during a workshop organized by teachers.

Everyone gathered in a large room at the school. Desks and chairs were arranged along the walls to allow around thirty people to dance.

Sit in a big circlesays the trainer, Myrianne Cardin-Houde, who has been dancing the jig since her childhood.

Some are shy and discreet. Others simply try to be forgotten, but no one will be left out. Under the applause and cries of encouragement from the teachers and Myrianne, the students almost all take their places on the improvised dance floor.

After all, Quebec dances bring people together. They come from different cultures, just like this group.

First on the territory, there were the indigenous peoples, before the arrival of the Europeans who arrived in different waves, the French, after that the British, so it's like a bit of a mixture of all these culturesexplains Ms. Cardin-Houde.

It is precisely this mixture of cultures that ensures that there are different styles of dance in Quebec. Solo dances like the jig, figure dances like square sets, contradancescontinues the trainer who, like a boat captain, guides the troops.

Myrianne Cardin-Houde knows the reality of these newcomers well, since in addition to teaching dance, she works for the organization Accueil et Intégration Bas-Saint-Laurent.

That [leur] also allows us to better understand the territory in which they are located. Often, when [ces personnes] have just arrived, they are eager to understand what the culture is here.

When we teach them these dances, they can often make connections with the traditional dances of their country of origin.

The activity is now organized every year by the staff of the Rimouski-Neigette Training Center. One of the French teachers, Marie-Hélène Gagnon, notices the same thing each time: fears quickly give way to pleasure.

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From the first minutes, they change their minds, they let themselves go. They become like children and it always works. Afterwards, they are happy to have done itsays Ms. Gagnon with obvious pride.

And smiles, like that of Zara Madi, originally from the Central African Republic, say a lot about this experience.

I've never seen this, this is my first time experiencing this, but it's so beautiful, it's so fun, it's awesomesays the young woman with a burst of laughter.

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It's simply an opportunity to have fun, to discover how we dance, the origin of our dancesconcludes Marie-Hélène Gagnon.