By Chaos, Freelance Writer
These lovely ladies sparkled as they spun, leaped, flirted and smiled as they danced at Carlos' Café, Belmont Road, New Kingston. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
CARLOS OF Carlos' Café, Belmont Road, New Kingston, will be launching his new and improved 'Latin Night's come tomorrow, but The Gleaner was given a sneak preview of what audiences can expect every Thursday and Saturday for the next six months at the cafe.
'Caliente Thursdays' and 'Sensuous Saturdays', in addition to Latin dance lessons, a free cocktail period and a midnight buffet, will feature two nightly cabaret shows courtesy of Seduce Me (pronounced sey-du-sey meh), a 14-year-old dance company from Havana, Cuba, which has travelled the world from China to The Bahamas doing salsa, mambo and whatever other Latin dance forms you can think of.
The five members of Seduce Me here in Jamaica for a half-year stint are Katia Montalro, Leydi Perez, Rosario Miranda, Juselis de la Cruz and the lone male, Alejandro Gimenez. Cubans all, when speaking with The Gleaner - at least three members of the troupe know some English - in addition to where they have performed they also spoke of practising four hours a day.
Their rehearsals clearly pay off. The Gleaner was treated to both shows, which are generally separated by two hours, last Tuesday. The four lovely ladies and Gimenez, clearly all Latin, sparkled as they spun, leaped, flirted and smiled as they danced. In fact, they smiled a lot, but no one was complaining.
Billed as being an 'Authentic Cuban Cabaret Show', the early show gets off with three of the ladies in glittering tops and somewhat sheer, tight black bottoms going through tightly-choreographed routines, each mirroring the others, practically to perfection.
In addition to the bright smiles, another aspect is just how flexible the dancers are. They stretch one leg towards the sky, seemingly effortlessly, in tandem in a show that features seamless transitions between the dances, never leaving the performance area empty.
Their costumes run the colour gamut from black to white, with a few neons thrown in for good measure.
The opening act for the second show features all the lissom ladies in black body suits, adorned with skeletons, dancing to slower, thicker Latin beats over a heavy bass line. At times the dancers looked like mannequins as they danced, before removing the body suits to reveal more brightly coloured costumes which did not stint in showing skin.
Again, no one complained.
As the dancers move fluidly through their routines in both shows, they come across as mannequins, as mentioned earlier, and as models on the catwalk, farm fresh and flirtatious shepherdesses and even more enticingly as 'come hither' vamps promising to fulfil some unvoiced secret desires, their dance vocabulary under lighting that varied to suit the mood, obviously extensive. Not to be outdone, the lone male brought images of matadors to mind and of a lover spurned.
The only problem - and this is a matter of perspective naturally - is that if you prefer a feast for the eyes as opposed to soothing your stomach's demands, it would be a good idea to schedule your meal around their performances, since literally not a second should be missed.
Perhaps the best dance is a duet between Gimenez and Rosario Miranda. Gimenez, in full black, and Miranda in a barely-there white and gold ensemble, looked like they were ice skating, sometimes in slow motion, as they told a fairytale without speaking, to slower than usual Latin beats, with Miranda leaping into Gimenez' arms to be held aloft, burning quite an image on to the mind's eye.
Not wanting to spoil the surprise, not all the dances will be described here, but a particular one involves audience participation, where a male and female dancer go into the crowd and grab a partner, unwilling or not, bring them to the stage and give impromptu dance lessons.
The Gleaner was the recipient of such attention and it was a testament to the dancer's skill that the resulting scene was not totally a farce. It was quite fun actually.
Smart and sexy, Seduce Me adds quite a nice and unique touch to the concept of a cabaret show and live entertainment.
