The vibes of a Havana street party brought to McEwan Hall, this dance troupe from Havana, Cuba are simply stellar, with styles such as street dance, salsa, rumba, afro and contemporary on display.
Authentic style dance and an honest story to tell
With authentic style dance and an honest story to tell, the show features all you would see at a street party; dance, bright colours, and gorgeous ladies with many men fawning at the chance to steal a dance with them. The show also has a small segment for dominoes, which is a common game played at black and brown fiestas and cook outs. I am impressed with the attention to detail here.
The quality of dance is sky high with great balletic technique from the ladies of Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Ballet Rakatan and Ballet Revolucion. The show also features Los Datway, a dance troupe who have received recognition from the likes of Bad Bunny and Daddy Yankee.
The footwork is seamless and the fluidity in which these guys can move their body is insane - they have special moments during the show to demonstrate what the street dance community refer to as a cypher, where each person comes into the middle of the circle and freestyles. This solidifies the street feel of the show.
There’s a pause from the high energy salsa and rumba music with the Apogan section – Apogan meaning 'black out', a time when the locals in Havana go to the rooftops to cool down and watch the stars. This section leads to a romantic Latin fusion-contemporary duet where dancers ‘fall in love’ on the rooftop during the Apogan.
After this we’re taken up again with some rumba, a style of dance that descends from Africa. We get a short snippet of the history of rumba and a solo performance from a dancer with traditional knives. The energy stays high with Los Datway back on stage performing street style dance to songs by Marc Anthony, Daddy Yankee and more. I particularly enjoyed the wee merengue dance break to Bad Bunny’s Después de la Playa.
The audience is encouraged to get up and dance throughout and towards the end the dancers invite the crowd to get up on stage with them, teaching them some salsa basics, so if you’re a bit shy be prepared for everyone else around you to stand up!
The show is so fun. If you’re into Latin music and dance, you will love this show and even if you are not, give a shot - it’s hard not to enjoy it!
