Review: Ballet Rakatan Delivers Sizzling Cuban Moves

When the Cuban choreographer Nilda Guerra named her company Ballet Rakatan, she created a word to sum up her vision. For her, “Rakatan” refers to rhythm, power and movement. But witnessing the dynamic, ardent members of her company in “Havana Rakatan” brings to mind another word: seduction. Her lively dancers flirt — with one another, with the audience — like there’s no tomorrow.

“Havana Rakatan,” from 2007, performed on Wednesday at City Center as part of A Bailar: Dance at the Center, a journey through Cuba’s music-and-dance history from its folk foundations to today. Throughout the adventure, Ms. Guerra demonstrates ways in which those forms are both distinct and inherently linked and, in the end, how persuasively they capture the rhythm of sound and of the body.

With the recent shift in American-Cuban relations, the presentation, offered in association with Sadler’s Wells London and Congas Productions, is also timely. How will the culture shift and change in Cuba in the months to come? Who is making daring choreography? Will there be a revolution in dance? There are few signs of that here. Despite wonderful performances — especially by the agile, statuesque Yoanis Reinaldo Pelaez Tamayo — and the splendid Cuban son band Turquino, Ms. Guerra’s “Havana Rakatan” settles for a revue sensibility, especially in the second half.

In an early section, “Afro-Flamenco,” she explores the merging of Spanish and African forms in which Ana Rose Meneses Arocha, a flamenco dancer in a ruffled red dress, came face to face with a group of bare-chested men whose earthy movements watered down her emphatic gestures. She was overpowered; the pounding of her heels was nearly inaudible, yet the contrasting styles revealed the attack and surrender found in Cuban dance.

Ms. Guerra’s quest to be conventionally entertaining is her downfall. In the first act, “Havana Rakatan” relates a loose story in which Mr. Tamayo and Kenia Margarita Anaya Salazar, his bride, leave the safety of the countryside for Havana, where they find themselves in the middle of a predictable street fight. A more bizarre moment occurs later when Yarima Rodriguez Valenciano, a witch-doctor figure, casts a spell on Mr. Tamayo that transforms him into a disembodied zombie with an arched back, his shoulders and arms dangling forward. As he progresses with clipped, shuffling steps, his lean body takes on an odd and eerie shape.

As the second half zips through time, paying homage to mambo, the bolero — Ms. Valenciano shows a more sensual side here — and the rumba, we see the way motion ripples up and down the spine, the sweet swagger of the men and, on a more off-putting note, the backup-dancer groupings of the women. A male trio, “Proposiciones,” described as exploring “the eternal dialogue between jazz and postmodern dance,” is an acrobatic, overly expressive castoff.

But perhaps it’s wrong to take “Havana Rakatan” too seriously. In a way, this is what you need to know: It’s all about the hips, and it sounds like summer.

Tomado de The New York Times