Kennedy Tap Company | Travel Well, Fly Safe

Theaters of Havana, Cuba

“Adventures don’t come calling like unexpected cousins calling from out of town. You have to go looking for them.” — unknown

After a beautiful morning on the beach in Varadero, we drive to Havana. It is two hours away. We see a lot of cars from the fifties, older Russian models, motorbikes and beat up buses filled with people. Now we are in a business hotel complete with towels, private rooms and toilet paper. I put the toilet paper in my purse and ask for more. I know we will need it later. One doesn’t come to Cuba for the food (not when Cuba is paying) or the toilets. (one of my favorite songs – Chan Chan from Buena Vista Social Club -if you don’t watch the video listen to the music while you read)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JEdf7XsV5g

The concert tonight turns out to be at a small theatre in a very poor neighborhood. There is no place to change and the kids change on the bus. We can see into the sparse apartments around us and smell the garbage.. We are surrounded by hordes of kids and give them almost all the candy , pencils and gum we have brought. They are an amazing audience. What they lack in material possessions, they make up in the love and enthusiasm they have for dance.

At the market in the Plaza Del Armas the next day, I found out that the Kennedy Kids were the hottest ticket in the festival and it had been sold out way in advance. They were the first American children in twenty years to be in this important dance festival. They represented hope. We were inexplicably famous. They were on the TV and radio news every day. There was a lot of translating to do so even with my bad Spanish, I am interpreting for the press. It was a reality check to see how few people spoke English. The Cubans loved seeing the American kids walking around and people asked for their autographs.

One of the many odd things that happened was how surprised the Cubans were to see “ninos blancos y negros” (Direct translation black and white children) playing together at the hotels. Apparently performing was one thing. Their information about the United States,( like their cars) was from the fifties. They didn’t know that things had changed. They were always asking me if they were allowed to be friends.

The Plaza del Armas (literally weapons plaza) is in Old Havana. It is a main square surrounded by crumbling buildings. Horse and carriages (in need of repairs) wait to take you around the old city. El Floridita (made famous by Hemingway) is there. In the cathedral square is a market selling crafts, books and paintings. I am there every day.

We spend a few days in Havana. Fidel gets his money’s worth. If the kids are not performing, they are watching other children perform. In the daytime, they performed at hospitals, orphanages, schools and the Young Pioneer Headquarters.

The mission of the Pioneers in every Communist country is to indoctrinate the young in Communist ideology. At first it felt creepy being at those headquarters seeing only what we were supposed to see. After a day with young pioneer children and teachers, they made us honorary pioneers by tying the scarves around our necks. We were happy to join our new friends. Our group picture is probably among their photos. ( It was the year before Elian Gonzales. We saw the photos of all the Young Pioneers on the news with our neckscarves waving their fists and wondered if we knew them) (the American Pioneers)

We go to see Giselle performed by Alessandro Ferry of ABT and the Cuban Ballet Company at the National Theatre of Cuba . It is a huge modern building, decorated with works by Cuban artists. The kids are exhausted and are all asleep when the lights go on at intermission.

It was a beautiful ballet performance – again everyone is talking about it at the Plaza de Armas the next day. It is amazing to be in a country that loves ballet. Many of the wood carvings in the market are dancers. The others are cars and cigar related things.

The American Ambassador (yes there is one) finds out that American children are in Cuba and prepares a dinner party. There is a lot of security. They take our purses and cameras in the afternoon. He rounds up the Americans in Cuba. The Alvin Ailey Company, some documentary filmmakers, any Americans working in Havana ( there are some) , Alicia Alonso and some of the Cuban Ballet Dancers. The ambassador turns out to be from Pasadena, California. We are also traveling with Fayard Nicholas ( of the famous tapping Nicholas brothers) He is there telling stories of dancing in Cuba in fifties. It is a wonderful night with good food. (Alicia Alonso -Director of the Cuban Ballet Company and Arlene Kennedy, Fayard Nicholas and Alvin Ailey Dancers, Kennedy Dancers)

The girls take a ballet class at the Cuban Ballet School (an old Havana mansion) with members of the Cuban ballet. The school, run by Alicia Alonso has turned out some of the best ballet dancers in the world. They combine Cuban sensuality with classical training. The many dancers who defect to the west is a very painful thing for them. The company stars who were there when we were, now dance in the US. The school dates back to the Ballet School of the Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical de La Habana, founded in 1931, where Prima Bailerina Allicia Alonso received her earliest ballet classes. In 1962, the National School of Ballet was created as part of the National School of Art . Like all the Cuban educational systems, the ballet training in this country is free.

We saw other ballet performances at the Gran Teatro de Habana. Someone performs a dance to the Internationale – the communist anthem. The solidarity clap begins. The audience stands and many people have tears in their eyes. (The Internationale)

This prominent theater is located on the site of the former Teatro Tacón in the Paseo de Martí (Prado), in a neo baroque building known as the Palacio del Centro Gallego. It is beautiful and crumbling.(as is much of Cuba). The García Lorca auditorium provides a magnificent stage for the Cuban National Ballet Company, as well as other dance and musical performances.

The Kennedy Tap Kids and the Alvin Ailey company perform the next night at a modern theatre in Havana – the Mella Theatre. It is named after revolutionary hero and dissident Julio Antonio Mella, assassinated in Mexico in 1929 under orders of then Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado. This is a modern building with a conventional stage and seating for 1475 attendees. It hosts a variety of shows, from cabaret to recitals as well as theatre performances.

By then we are pros. We sit in the first row and start the standing ovation and the solidarity clap. American dance moms know how to get a crowd going. !!!!

Adios and Fly Safe

JAZ

Going to Cuba with God – Part 2

“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Karl Marx

We woke in Varadero, Cuba. A children’s ballet school had been waiting for two hours to entertain the American kids. I wasn’t moving. I lay in bed and watched the woman next to me carefully lock her suitcase. We don’t speak. Did she think we were going to steal? I also had locks and did the same – not sure who I was supposed to be worried about.

Everyone ran out. I decided to shower (in the communal bathroom) and fix my things. There was only a hand towel that felt like a dish towel. I heard ballet music. I walked out on a terrace and there was the most beautiful white sand beach with clear blue water. I could see the dancers on point on the concrete. It was an amazing sight. I couldn’t wait to get outside.

We had missed breakfast. No worries, I had protein bars. At lunch – cafeteria style, I asked for coffee. “We only have coffee at breakfast,” they said in Spanish. Now, I had no idea that I was surrounded by hotels and could have had coffee, fresh lobster and a massage on the beach at any hour of the day. I was thinking more like prison in the middle of nowhere. If they had coffee beans in that kitchen, I was getting some. They finally tell me that after lunch I can have coffee. Everyone leaves and the kids go to rehearse. I wait for them to serve us coffee with Indira and Elaine. A woman comes out and says “Vamos.” We walk to her house on the premises.

We sit in her kitchen and she makes us coffee. The linoleum on the floor reminds me of my childhood. I understand more Spanish than I can speak, but we manage to talk. I don’t know how Cuba is now but fourteen years ago, the first language was Spanish, the second was Russian and the third was Bulgarian. No one spoke English.

She is really nice. I ask her why we are here and not at a hotel. She says that there is an increase in prostitution in the hotels in Cuba (due to the economic conditions), and Fidel did not want the children to see this. They decided a children’s camp was better for them. She and her husband run this summer and holiday camp. Now there is school. (after coffee)

I tell her we need to get bottled water for the kids. She says the water is good there. I explain politely that it won’t be good everywhere and we want them to get used to only drinking bottled water. We walk to a store with two very muscular Russian men to carry the water. They only speak Russian. Elaine and I are having fun now.

The store is small and sells only to tourists. I buy some Cuban coffee and we come back with water. The kids are rehearsing. Though we didn’t know it at the time, the Kennedy Tap School was a good preparation for life. Change is constant. They were changing and reworking their dance numbers up until the first show. The kids go for a quick swim at sundown. It is beautiful. What an amazing beach!

The woman in the bed next to me turns out to be our interpreter Jamilla and by the end of the day we are good friends. I meet the rest of the people who have attached themselves to our group. It was hard at that time to get visas for Cuba so that is how people went. They are local politicians from LA and journalists and people to help with the tour. They all ran to the hotel next door when they saw the accommodations. We are all having fun now.

We leave for the theatre in Matanzas for the first of many performances in Cuba. Everyone is nervous.

The Sauto Theatre opened in 1863. The U-shaped 775-seat theatre is almost entirely covered with wood-panelling. It has three balconies and Carrera marble statues in the lobby. There is no influence of communist architecture in this theatre. As in other communist countries, they left these old beautiful theatres intact.

It is a sub-venue for important international events held in the capital, such as the International Ballet Festival and Mayo Teatral. The Sauto presents programs about five days a week. Considered the most elegant and functional of the 19th-century Cuban theatres, it has become a symbol of the city. The great Mexican artist Diego Rivera once said, “I recognize Matanzas by the Sauto.” The theatre was declared a National Monument in 1978.

Before they go on stage, the kids and the teachers join hands in a prayer circle. They did that before every performance in LA as well. A prayer circle is when everyone joins hands and wishes their prayers on each other. Their performance is amazing. “It Don’t Mean A Thing” brings down the house.

The audience is clapping wildly. Suddenly the clapping changes. Everyone starts to clap in unison. I can’t even begin to imagine the logistics of how such a clap could be orchestrated by one person. I find myself joining in. If you mention it to a Cuban or any person from a Soviet country, they will not know what you are talking about. This is how they clap when they like something. It is the “communist or solidarity clap.” You need to be sitting in an audience or on stage to truly appreciate it. I have heard it in Russia and Croatia. But after witnessing it, it promises to continue to astound over and over again.

On our bus back to camp everyone is excited and happy. I notice other people on our private bus . They were some of the ballet students from the morning and their parents. Since petrol is hard to come by in Cuba, we are giving them a lift home. The buses are always overcrowded and sometimes people wait a very long time to get on one. We are always picking up and dropping people off. The bus driver must know everybody in Cuba. I am always meeting new people and hearing their stories. It turns out that I am the only one who speaks Spanish in the group. What an amazing day!!! (public bus, Cuban and American dancers)

Buen Dia and Fly Safe,

JAZ

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Going To Cuba With God – Part 2