Bayou

A bayou (/ˈbaɪ.oʊ/ or /ˈbaɪjuː/) is a Franco-English term used in the United States for a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area, and can refer either to an extremely slow-moving stream or river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), or to a marshy lake or wetland. The name "bayou" can also refer to a creek whose current reverses daily due to tides and which contains brackish water highly conducive to fish life and plankton. Bayous are commonly found in the Gulf Coast region of the southern United States, notably the Mississippi River Delta, with the states of Louisiana and Texas being famous for them. A bayou is frequently an anabranch or minor braid of a braided channel that is moving much more slowly than the mainstem, often becoming boggy and stagnant. Though fauna varies by region, many bayous are home to crawfish, certain species of shrimp, other shellfish, catfish, frogs, toads, American alligators, American crocodiles, herons, turtles, spoonbills, snakes, leeches and myriad other species.

Bayou (ballet)

Bayou is a ballet made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and ballet master George Balanchine to Virgil Thomson's Acadian Songs and Dances (1947). The premiere took place on 21 February 1952 at City Center of Music and Drama, New York.

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Bayou (film)

Bayou was a 1957 motion picture directed by Harold Daniels. The drama was set in the Louisiana bayou region. Produced by American National Films, it was also shot in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, and most of the characters are Cajun residents of a rural fishing village. Bayou features one of the few lead roles by noted character actor Timothy Carey.

Plot

Martin Davis, an insecure, young architect, comes to New Orleans from the North to compete against a local man for the job of designing a new civic auditorium. On a visit to a carnival in the Cajun country of Southern Louisiana, Martin meets Marie, a sensual Cajun girl of seventeen, who works as a crabber in the bayou in order to support herself and her partly senile, alcoholic father Herbert. Marie has aroused the lustful instincts of the local storekeeper, Ulysses, a sadistic, illiterate bully, who has attempted to rape her. After helping Marie to recover money stolen from her, Martin asks her to be his guide for the carnival activities. In order to impress the local building commissioner, Martin's contractor friend, Jim Tallant, enters him in a race using pirogues, primitive canoes hollowed out of tree trunks. Martin and Ulysses compete against each other and Ulysses, who greatly resents Martin's interest in Marie, wins when he deliberately cuts in front of Martin's canoe.