Our first dance after Swamp in the City is shaping up to be a seriously special night - an evening of Cajun and Norteño music, dancing, and cross-cultural joy at Jalopy Theatre on Thursday, May 28th. Presented in partnership with Association for Cultural Equity as part of their "In Great Accord" program, this double-bill brings together two dance traditions which share the same beating heart: the accordion. Get ready for crowded floors, heartfelt songs, and late-night magic.

We’re thrilled to welcome Les Taiauts — a steel-guitar-driven Cajun band from Western Massachusetts — alongside Odi Norteño, an incredible Bronx-based Norteño group we first discovered busking on the NYC subway one random afternoon and immediately fell in love with.

The night kicks off with a beginner-friendly Cajun dance lesson at 7:30pm, followed by a set from Les Taiauts full of driving two-steps, wailing waltzes, swampy blues, and classic dancehall energy. During the first break, we’ll switch gears with a Norteño dance lesson, then Odi Norteño takes the stage with their electrifying subway-forged sound, performing beloved classics and exquisite Norteño tunes that have already started gaining traction online. We’ll close things out with a big finale dance set from Les Taiauts, with some possible musical crossover magic before the night’s through.

Tickets are sliding scale to help keep the dance floor open to everybody:
• $10 Economy
• $20 Standard
• $30 Supporter

About the bands:

Les Taiauts is a Western Mass-based Cajun band whose members, though all hailing from the North, have spent the last decade deeply immersed in the music of South Louisiana. Together they’ve unearthed strange old Cajun gems and crafted a sound inspired by the steel-guitar dancehall bands of the 1950s and ’60s. Expect stomping two-steps, heartbreaking waltzes, slow-drags, blues, and the kind of music that pulls even the shyest dancers onto the floor.

Led by Bronx-based bajo sexto player Odi Pérez, Odi Norteño has been building a following by performing classic and deeply felt Norteño songs throughout the NYC subway system. This will be their debut performance at Jalopy, and we can’t wait to welcome them into the Swamp orbit.

About ACE:

Association for Cultural Equity was founded in 1983 by folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax to explore, preserve, and sustain the world’s expressive traditions through research, documentation, and public access. ACE works to reconnect people and communities with their creative heritage while supporting cultural equity through archives, education, and dissemination of traditional music and dance.

ACE is also the custodian of the Lomax Digital Archive, an extraordinary online repository preserving decades of field recordings, photographs, films, and oral histories collected by Alan Lomax and his father John A. Lomax. The archive documents musical traditions from across the United States and around the world — from blues singers and Appalachian balladeers to Creole musicians and prison work songs — safeguarding cultural histories that continue to shape folk music today.

Come dance with us Thursday, May 28th from 7:30pm ’til late at Jalopy. This one’s gonna be special.

THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPORTED, IN PART, BY PUBLIC FUNDS FROM THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CITY COUNCIL.

Two-Step Night with Les Taiauts and Odi Norteño

Two-Step Night with Les Taiauts and Odi Norteño