DIVERSIONS : Cajun Country : A Weekly Menu of Dinner, Dancing Hooks Patrons on Merriment Made in the Bayous

In the spacious ballroom, lithe young women are turning pirouettes and practicing dance steps. In the kitchen, Ruth Doucet is dishing up chicken gumbo laced with spicy sausage chunks. At the bandstand, instrumentalists are unpacking accordions and tuning up mandolins.

For Matthew Rideau, the scene is reminiscent of the parish hall dances of his childhood in the back country of Palmetto, La.

“This is something I was raised up with,” Rideau, 54, recalls. “At Mardi Gras time, we’d make a big gumbo and some jambalaya and get everybody together for a big dance.”

But this ain’t The Big Easy, chere.

It’s South Pasadena, where 200 aficionados don’t need a holiday to celebrate Cajun tradition at the War Memorial Hall on Fair Oaks Avenue off the Pasadena Freeway. Every fourth Friday, they gather for dinner and three hours of dancing to the joyful, toe-tapping music of the Louisiana bayou.

(Starting Saturday, the group also will dance on the second Saturday of every month at the Pasadena Holly Center.)

Carrie and Charlie McDade drive down from Camarillo to attend, although they never danced at all before they were introduced to Cajun music about five years ago.

“It’s the kind of music where, when you hear it, you just can’t sit still,” says Carrie. “There’s just something real basic about it.”

The McDades like the unpretentious, fun atmosphere at the dances. And like the other dancers, who come from all over Southern California, they appreciate the unsophisticated tone of the evening and the prohibition against smoking and alcohol.

“This is a step way back in time--like we had in the ‘50s,” says Roger Rook, 49, of Glendale. “There are no overtones of sexual pickups, drugs or alcohol.”

For singles, the dance is a safe way to meet other unattached people.

“There are lots of women here who like to dance and it’s easy to pair off,” says Bruce Murray, a 34-year-old computer software manager who lives in Studio City.

Jenise Cook of Sherman Oaks first started Cajun dancing two years ago after a break-up with her longtime boyfriend. “My girlfriend told me, ‘You’ve got to get out,’ and she told me about Cajun dancing. I looked at her and thought she was crazy,” Cook says.

But she tagged along to one of the dances and after one evening she was hooked. “I’ve met the nicest, most sincere people here. Whenever I feel depressed or down I come to one of these and my mood turns around. The music just carries you when you’re out on the dance floor.”

Cajun music (the name comes from the French “Acadian” settlers who were driven out of Nova Scotia 200 years ago and settled in the swamps and bayous of Southwest Louisiana) is a multi-rhythmed music influenced by country-Western, Afro-Caribbean, swing and bluegrass. Cajun band members play the fiddle, button accordion, drums, bass and guitar.

Every other month, the dance features a zydeco band--the Creole counterpart of Cajun music--which incorporates rhythm and blues, jazz and even urban soul. Zydeco derives much of its Afro-Caribbean sound from an instrument called the frottoir, a corrugated metal vest that is played with spoons, bottle openers or other metal scrapers.

The lyrics generally are sung in pidgin French--a jumbled mixture of 16th- and 17th-Century French, along with German, English and American Indian languages. The music typically moves fast and the dancing can get furious, although the dancers represent all levels of expertise, from beginners who shimmy around doing modified disco steps to Cajuns who are a pleasure to watch as they twirl and bob to the complicated beat.

As the band warms up, about 60 beginners are given a brief introduction to Cajun dancing and taught a few basic steps like the Cajun jitterbug, the two-step and the waltz. For the rest of the evening, they will watch the experienced dancers, who generally arrive later, and try to copy them.

“You can have two left feet and still do this kind of dancing. It’s just a matter of having fun,” said one woman, who comes to the dances alone every month. She said she never has trouble finding a partner. “I just go up and ask whoever’s free. No one will ever turn you down.”

The dancers are mostly in their late ‘20s to mid-’40s with a smattering of children and seniors. There are couples and singles, most dressed casually, with the women in light dresses, jeans or shorts and the men in trousers or jeans.

There are a core group of about 50 Cajun fanatics who attend regularly and have fallen in love with the Louisiana culture and food as well as the music and dancing.

Lynne Goldstein, 49, of Marina del Rey, never danced a step in his life until three years ago, when his girlfriend dragged him onto a dance floor for a lesson at a Cajun music festival. Now, he attends Cajun dances two or three times a week and vacations in Louisiana.

“I heard the music and I just couldn’t believe it, it was such a unique blend of African, French and rhythm and blues,” he said. “It’s exciting, there’s so much energy and I get a chance to do about 60 or 70 different movements. It’s aerobic and a lot of fun.”

“Besides,” he confessed, “it’s a chance to get kissed by women of all ages that I’ll never see again.”

The Cajun phenomenon rode into Southern California in the mid-’80s when spicy, blackened food took California cuisine by storm.

Some of that food is served at the dance by Ruth Doucet, who grew up in Louisiana and is writing a cookbook based on her Creole specialties. Her bowls of savory brown-gravy gumbo are dominated by chicken pieces and delicious soggy rice. If you ask for it, she will throw in some spicy “boudin” sausage. She also serves red beans and rice, jambalaya and for dessert--pralines.

“The food may just be the best thing about this,” says Lisa Haley, a vocalist with the Zydeco Party Band. “Hey, Ruth!” she yells, “dish me a bowl of gumbo and put it on my tab.”

Haley’s roots are also in Cajun country and she grew up speaking the pidgin French that she sings with the band. “About 10 years ago, being a Cajun was not a nice thing to be,” she said. “The music was considered . . . backward, hillbilly.”

Now, she said, Cajun music and dance festivals are held throughout the country and the dancing has become downright respectable. Providing more people with an opportunity to become acquainted with Cajun music and dance was the reason why Karen Hysell set up a nonprofit organization to sponsor the dances in July, 1989. The evenings are advertised by word-of-mouth, on radio programs that specialize in folk music and through a mailing list.

Karen Hysell and her husband, Chuck, are a good advertisement for the singles who come to the dances hoping to find romance. They were neighbors in Pasadena for 10 years but had never met until Chuck started showing up at the dances.

They were married a year ago and their daughter was born last month. They plan to teach her the Cajun two-step soon.

Cajun Dancing The Traditional Music and Dance Conservancy hosts the South Pasadena Cajun Dance on the fourth Friday of every month at the War Memorial Hall, 435 Fair Oaks Ave., South Pasadena.

Dance lessons are held from 8-8:30 p.m. and the band plays from 8:30 to 11 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, children under 12 admitted free.

And because dancing stirs up an appetite, the kitchen, featuring Creole cooking, opens at 7:30 p.m. Most dishes are $4 and under.

Starting Saturday, the group will also dance on the second Saturday of every month at the Pasadena Holly Center, 85 E. Holly St., Pasadena. Hours and prices will be the same.