A bélé is a folk dance and music from Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The term bélé also refers to a kind of drum found on the music of Caribbean countries and islands like Dominica, Haiti, Martinique and Saint Lucia.
A male and female (in Creole, the "Cavalier" and the "Dam") show off their dance skills to the other dancer, hinting at their sexuality in chants led by a "chantuelle" meaning singer, with the refrain or "lavway" given by a chorus of spectators.
[citation needed] In the West Indies, the dance incorporated into work and periods of festivity and lamenting.
Traditional dances revolve around stylized courtship between a male and female dancer, known as the kavalyé (cavalier) and danm (dam) respectively.
It is characterized, in its rhythm, by the "tibwa" (two wooden sticks) played on a length of bamboo mounted on a stand to the tambour bèlè.
[1] The tibwa rhythm plays a basic pattern and the drum comes to mark the highlights and introduce percussion improvisations.
At that time, the French held many balls at the Great Houses where they enjoyed doing many of the courtly dances of Europe.
They showed off by doing ceremonious bows, making grand entrances, sweeping movements, graceful and gentle gliding steps which imitated the elegance of the French.