BWW Reviews: HAVANA RAKATAN Scores at City Center

Without missing a beat, Havana Rakatan exploded onto the Midtown soundscape with a supercharged magnificence.

Straight out of the Cuban capital, Turquino struck the first chord, a 9-piece band led by singer and bassist Michel Antonio Gonzales Pacheco. Drawn from his humble origins as a fisherman in Colima, musical authenticity rang sharp through the hall, nearly full to the brim.

Then, fourteen dancers lit up the stage with all the fervent strength of Cuban arts. As one Cuban artist vocalized in the midst of the pre-show discussion panel, the socialist economics of Cuba demand that all Cuban artists are career artists from the start.

Act One opened with a charming, freewheeling mood, as dancers evoked daily life in the hot, lush days and nights of modern Cuba. They lounged and mused to the unmistakably awesome musical backdrop.

Then, history began. Havana Rakatan is the story of Cuba in a dance, carried by the deft tones, and full rhythms of its music. The second piece, Afro-Flamenco, enjoined the Spanish culture, embodied in a flamenco dancer, with the original African migrants.

At the cusp of tradition the story then followed a guajiro (rural folk) couple as they moved, and ever so stylishly, through the bodies of the dancers, from the countryside to Havana. The dramatic bravura of Havana Rakatan, choreographed by Nilda Guerra, presented theatrical, narrative dance at its finest.

The profoundly beautiful voice of Dayme Arocena Uribarri came down from the Turquino bandstand to sell mani (peanuts), in full street vendor regalia, as the first sights of the big city for the travelling guajiro couple. There, the urbane and the pastoral came to a head in an exuberant fight scene, all with an edgy, honest humor.

The second act danced, sang and played through the cultural movements of Havana since the era known as Golden Havana, the 1940s until today. From Mambo, Bolero, guaracha (popular music), cha-cha-cha, Rumba, to Salsa, the performers delighted with an absolutely flawless re-creation of the changing times.

With seamless introductions of cultural modernization, one of the percussionists in Turquino could be seen triggering an electronic drum pad. In another instance, a solo male dancer exhibited a masterful modern dance set as his character closed down a club.

At City Center, Havana Rakatan brought a capacity theater to its feet, all dancing and cheering with the luscious moods of Cuban nights. Walking into and out of the hall, dance lovers gazed at "Transitions: Contemporary Cuban and Cuban-American Art", an exhibition including one poignant mixed media painting by Leslie Sardinias, Diaspora.

As one of the most captivating diaspora narratives in the globe, with particular significance in relation to American society, the Cuban culture has yet to write many more chapters. Havana Rakatan is sure to be a major player in the writing of that history.

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