Biguine (/bɪˈɡɪn/ big-IN, French: [biɡin]; Antillean Creole: bigin) is a rhythmic dance and music style that originated from Saint-Pierre, Martinique in the 19th century.
It fuses West African traditional music genres, such as Bélé, with 19th-century French ballroom dance steps.
It is characterized, in its rhythm, by the "tibwa" (two wooden sticks) played either on a length of bamboo mounted on a stand or on the sides of the tambour bèlè.
[5][6] By combining the traditional bèlè music with the European dance genres, the black musicians of Martinique created the biguine, which comprises three distinct styles: In the 1930s several biguine artists from Martinique and Guadeloupe moved to France, where they achieved great popularity in Paris, especially in the wake of the colonial exhibition in 1931.
In the later part of the 20th century, biguine musicians like clarinet virtuoso Michel Godzom helped revolutionize the genre.