In Cuba, the economy is at a standstill. The government has lost all credibility, even among its own citizens. In Havana, a small dance troupe recalls the strength and energy that came to Cuba with the African slaves’ pantheon of gods. A rumba against giving up.
Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader, initially prohibited the Orishas, the deities of African slaves. Alexis Hernandez grew up in a family that maintained their African roots despite the prohibitions. In Ciego de Avila, his grandfather was a famous healer and Afro-Cuban spiritual leader. For Alexis, the drumming and dancing that invoked the powers of the Orishas were part of the rituals of his childhood. For a long period, he lived in Switzerland, where he worked as a dance teacher and helped to fuel the salsa boom. But then he was drawn back to Cuba by a longing for his own roots. He arrived with his wife, Christa Akert, who was fascinated by the secrets hidden behind the light salsa steps.
In Havana, the two run a guesthouse, whose rooms remain empty. Tourism has collapsed, as has the local building stock. In the Vedado district, they run a cultural center that is open to the local population – with dance and capoeira against depression. The city is short of gasoline, medicine and food. With their own little dance troupe, Christa and Alexis celebrate the life force hidden in ancient drum sounds.
In Cuba, no one knows where the future will lead. In Switzerland, Christa and Alexis’ dance troupe has been invited to attend a folklore festival. Here, it reminds us that something remains when everything familiar collapses: The wealth of a culture marked by the art of survival. And the freedom to always keep moving.
