One of my friends, Maria, is a dancer and a dance instructor. She teaches children and teenagers folk dancing. Most of the dance is African in origin and pertains to her faith, Santeria. She had organized a recital in a house that was being used as a community center in one of the many poor suburbs of Havana. My students and I were invited and we hired a van and went there late one afternoon. It started inside the house, on the second floor, but the crowd grew too large for the room and the dance was moved out into the street. Maria's son Ellington and her jazz loving husband Roberto provided the music by playing a set of bongo drums and thumping on a wooden box-the latter was a great instrument one sat on it and then just beat the side with both hands. The children were enthusiastic and some of them were quite talented. I thought about some of the times I had been to dance recitals with my children in the US. I realized that even under the thumb of an oppressive government people will find a way to not only have fun, but to help their children enjoy a bit of life.
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