Nightlife & the Arts in Guadeloupe

Guadeloupeans maintain that the beguine began here, and, for sure, the beguine and mazurkas were heavily influenced by the European quadrille and orchestrated melodies. Their merging together is the origin of West Indian music, and it gave birth to zouk (music with an African-influenced Caribbean rhythm) at the beginning of the 1980s. Still the rage here, it has spread not only to France but to other European countries. Many resorts have dinner dancing or offer regularly scheduled entertainment by steel bands and folkloric groups.