Beguine (dance) Beguine (dance) The beguine is a dance and music form, similar to a slow rhumba. It was popular in the 1930s, coming from the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, where in local Creole "Beke" or "Begue" means a White person, and "Beguine" is the female form. It is a combination of Latin folk dance and French ballroom dance, and is a spirited but slow, close dance with a roll of the hips (a movement inherited from rumba) After Cole Porter wrote the song "Begin the Beguine", the dance became more widely known beyond the Caribbean. The song was introduced in
I Love You (Cole Porter song) I Love You (Cole Porter song) "I Love You" is a song written by Cole Porter in 1944 for his stage musical "Mexican Hayride". The New York Times reviewed the show saying, inter alia, "Of Mr. Porter's score, the best number bears the title almost startling in its forthrightness, "I Love You," and is the property of Mr. Evans" (Wilbur Evans). However the rather commonplace lyrics of the song and why they were perhaps sub-standard for the song-writer was due to a challenge given Porter. His friend Monty Woolley contended that Porter's talent lay in the off-beat and the esoteric,