Oppression and Desire in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights

INTRODUCTION

In 1991, Cuba entered what has become known as the ‘Special Period’, defined by nine years of considerable economic crisis succeeding the fall of the Soviet Union (Gonzalez, 2003). This was a period of profound sociological change for the island, particularly in the dimensions of agriculture, food, foreign trade, and, of course, politics (Gonzalez, 2003). Cuba depended largely upon the Soviet Union to ensure economic equilibrium and experienced subsequent diminutions in the spheres of energy and food production. Cubans even had to resort to stealing animals from the Havana Zoo for consumption (Schiffman, 2013). 

It was also during the Special Period that Cuban art and music culture began to shift in the social world. Reggaeton, an urban musical genre noted by its sexual language and dance moves (Fairley, 2006) became increasingly popular (Fairley, 2006; Torres, 2012). Surrounded by death and devastation, one wonders where desire has a place to arise. However, it has been shown that mortality salience tends to increase desire for sex and that the awareness of death as a ‘real’ force may actually elicit desire (Birnbaum et al., 2011). Psychoanalytically speaking, we can easily understand this as the life instinct (Eros) offsetting the influx of the death instinct (Thanatos). When the ego is besieged by the forces of Thanatos, it very well may surrender unto it in overwhelming defeat and either self-destroy itself or allow itself to be destroyed. If the desire to live remains, however, then Eros shall arise and prompt the individual to defeat death by achieving immortality via reproduction. Using this lens, we can see then how Reggaeton arose as an erotic defensive reaction against the external calamity (Thanatos). 

Cuba entered the sphere of American popular consciousness in 1999 when 5-year-old Elian Gonzalez arrived on the shores of Florida on a raft from Cuba (PBS Frontline, n.d.). The event gained national press coverage due to the sensational nature of the case. The occurrence ignited incredible public outrage, climaxing with Alan Diaz’s iconic photo of the seizure, which won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News (The Pulitzer Prizes, 2001). 

Cuba effectively captured the imagination of the American public as a place of allure, wonder, and curiosity. Was this place not the Isla Bonita of Madonna? Why then was there so much turbulence surrounding this tropical paradise? Was Cuba the Land of Romance or the Land of Despair?

In the midst of these questions, in 2003, production began on the prequel of Dirty Dancing (released in the same year as Isla Bonita). In 2004, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights was released as a romantic drama set at the climax of the Cuban Revolution, following the life-changing experience of teenage Katey Miller when her father moves their family from the United States to Cuba. There, she falls in love with a local waiter, and the events of the film unfold. 

Film, as an art form, has a direct relationship to the mind (individual and collective). On an individual dimension, the viewing experience itself is a mental process (Creed, 1998). Psychoanalytic principles are deliberately utilised by cinema – voyeuristic gratification, sexualisation, identification with the protagonist, catharsis, etc. Collectively, it represents cultural climate, externalises anxieties and conflicts by their representation, and the collective sentiment. During times of peace, cinematic trends tend to incline towards the romantic, ideal, and comedic – while during times of distress, trends incline towards apocalypticism and violence (Hamonic, 2017). Film becomes, then, the modern equivalent of a morality play, ancient Greek theatre, and fairytales. Film is visual myth. The screen becomes the equivalent of a theatre, and yet still so much more, for it is the closest thing to reality that fantasy can achieve. Because of this, it provides an excellent source of analytic material. 

EXPOSITION

The movie begins with the narration of Katey Miller as she tells us about her move to Havana. She looks distastefully at the saturated and vivid colours of the Spanish colonial architecture. We are immediately immersed in imagery of emotive dancing, vibrant music, and idealised depictions of the capital. 

As Katey walks into her place of residence, she sees a sign reading ‘Learn how to Dance.’ A group of American teenagers with whom her sister is socialising see her looking upon the poolside while criticising her choice of clothing. Everyone is wearing revealing clothing while she is conservatively clothed. 

Katey’s younger sister, Susie, looks upon her friends as she sees them pull out a cigarette. Her friend, Sheila, says, “This is Cuba; nobody cares what you do here. What? You want one?” We are thus introduced to Cuba as a place of maturity, where the American social norms are lowered and as a space one can step into and release inhibitions. In the United States, Katey is still a girl. In Cuba, she is a woman – socially, culturally, and legally. 

Only a few moments after this, Katey is called over by one of these wealthy American teenagers, James Phelps, who invites her to sit with him. She awkwardly makes her way towards them and causes one of the waiters to stumble and drop their drinks. While the teenagers scoff and insult him for the inconvenience, Katey searches for him to apologise. He disregards her apology, and she leaves. 

We then see her in class, where she is tasked to recite an excerpt of Homer’s Odyssey.  “Now the suitors turned to dance and song, to the lovely beat and sway, waiting for dusk to come upon them there… and the dark night came upon them, lost in pleasure.” This catches James’ attention, who then invites her to the country club on Saturday night to dance with her. She reluctantly accepts. 

When she finishes her studies, she leaves school, and we see her walking through the streets of Havana. She walks by a group of young men, who compliment her and whistle at her. We see them gaze at her libidinously. She continues walking, trying to find her way home. She then stumbles upon the same scene we saw in the beginning – a group of people vividly dancing with emotive and expressive music. There, in the midst of the scene, she sees the same waiter from the restaurant. She is fascinated by his unknown and captivating form of dancing. He sees her and approaches her. After introducing himself as Javier, she explains to him her disorientation, and he offers to walk her. 

As they are walking, she tells him, “I’ve never seen dancing like that.” “Like what?” he asks. “I don’t know… It’s very…” She struggles to find the words, and the audience member is left to free associate. “Very Cuban?” he interjects. They stumble upon a group of musicians singing in a street corner. They sing the song Lamento Cubano (Cuban Lament), a song grieving the tragedy of Cuba, being so beautiful and yet suffering so much. She doesn’t understand the words, but it captivates her all the same. “We should get out of the road,” Javier suggests. “Why?” Katey asks. “You don’t understand what they’re singing.” A few moments after, the police besiege the scene, and they are forced to run away. Amidst the turbulence, they are separated. A policeman grabs Javier while he shouts to Katey to flee home in another direction. 

The next day, Katey stands before a mirror and gazes at herself. She tries to imitate the movements she saw the previous day. She sways her hips and her arms awkwardly, and attempts to arch her back and accentuate her posterior. She fails at this and is left utterly embarrassed when she turns around and sees Javier watching her discreetly. Leaving her embarrassment aside, she asks Javier about the events of the day before. “I don’t get it. They were just singing?” she states. “There’s not such a thing as just singing here anymore.” Javier teases her and tells her that she danced well, to which she asserts, “What do you mean? I was terrible!” Javier responds, “Yeah, you’re right. You were pretty terrible. But for an American, you move well.” This comment then situates Katey’s American world as different from the world Javier lives in, which is filled with dance. Constitutionally, Katey’s ‘Americanness’ is incompatible with the Cuban dance so natural to Javier, who does not have the level of education or socioeconomic stature she has. Hence, despite Katey’s more affluent and privileged background, none of it has been enough to obtain what Javier so naturally has. This gift of Cuban dance is thus not something that can be purchased, but is innate. 

“Why do you look in the mirror?” he asks her, as they look at each other in the reflection. “Just feel the music.” He invites her to see how music is felt at ‘La Rosa Negra,’ a local nightclub, on Saturday night. She tells him that, unfortunately, she can’t go because of her arrangement with James. He does not take this pleasantly and leaves. We see Katey again on the balcony, looking upon James’ body. She is seen to have been contemplating it for quite some time when her mother sees her watching him and comments on how she finds him suitable for her. Unbeknownst to her mother, her eyes begin to wander away from James and towards Javier. 

In the next scene, Katey is seen trying on clothes and contemplating them in relation to her body in the mirror. Her attendant, Yolanda, assists her. Katey, displeased with her dress, asks Yolanda if she can help her find something more agreeable. Yolanda presents unto Katey one of her own dresses, which is much more revealing and sensualising. Katey, nonetheless, accepts. 

The definitive moment of the movie happens when the viewer (identified with Katey) is shown the inside of La Rosa Negra. Both are immersed in a scene filled with Afro-Caribbeans, sensual dance, and Spanish music. Katey and James walk in – he approaches the scene with hesitation, she with fascination. She pauses and absorbs the entire scene. Katey is held in a state of absolute wonder, fixation, and entrancement. She observes how they ‘feel the music’, how couples embrace and seem to make love while dancing. The formerly quiet, serene, yet rigid setting of the country club is contrasted by the dynamic, expressive, loud, and libidinous nature of the Cuban club. She finds Javier dancing between two women, alternating between the both of them. He sees Katey amidst the crowd and approaches her. “You look so Cuban!” he exclaims. In this moment, we are introduced to the love triangle between Javier, Katey, and James. Javier asks James if he will permit Katey to dance with him, while he ultimately commends the permission to Katey herself, who agrees. “Shall we give your boyfriend a show?” He playfully jests. We are introduced to Javier's jealousy and possessive desire early. Javier then takes her to the dance floor, where the pivotal moment of the film transpires. 

Katey joins herself to Javier by bringing her arms upward, a routine of hers. He brings them down and suggests she simply feel the music. She gradually draws closer to him, seemingly forgetting that James is watching her, and loses herself in the moment. “Represent, Cuba” by Orishas begins to play, and Katey catches on to the ‘Cuba!’ refrain of the song, which the group collectively shout. 

After an awkward political discussion with Javier’s relations, James takes Katey out and brings her to his car to take her home. Katey, rather offended at his brusque escorting of her away, informs him that she was quite enjoying herself. He comments that she looked ‘hot’ while doing it and advances at her. She is struck by his awkward comment, and not long after does he attempt to kiss her. She pushes him off her, but he insists and tells her, “You didn’t say no to him.” She makes one final physical struggle and flees from the car back inside La Rosa Negra, indicating that she felt safer in the club with Javier than with James. When Javier sees her dishevelled state, he discerns that James has attempted to force himself upon her and at once seeks him out. Katey stops him and tells him that it would be best to forget about it. Javier, instead, takes her home. 

Katey tells Javier that she should’ve seen it coming. She blames it on her lack of experience with ‘guys’. Javier asks her if she ever had a boyfriend before, to which she informs him she hasn’t. Before they say goodbye, Javier adjusts Katey’s shoulder strap and leaves. We see that Susie, in actuality, was lurking in the shadows with Lois, witnessing the whole thing. 

The next day, Katey is walking through the resort when she sees the ‘Learn how to Dance’ sign from the beginning of the movie again. She follows it into a room where she finds a dance instructor teaching dance to several women and inviting them to participate in a dance competition. The instructor brings Katey spontaneously into a dance with him and urges her to consider joining. She leaves and ponders these words in her heart. As she leaves, she comes across James, who apologises for his behaviour the night before and blames it on the drink. He discerns that she is looking for Javier, to which he informs her that he is no longer here. He tells her that Susie and Lois reported Javier to the resort staff, and since staff are not meant to socialise with residents, he was fired. This subsequently causes conflict between Susie and Katey. “What were you doing with that guy anyways?” Susie asks “He’s not like us.” Susie hereby makes it clear that there is a psychocultural distinction between Cubans and Americans, which she perceives as dangerous. 

The next day, Javier is seen waiting for Katey outside of her school, when they decide to join the contest together. It is here when the chemistry between Javier and Katey is officially tangible. They seem to reciprocate gazes of mutual desire towards one another. Javier leans his head into her, as she slyly smiles towards him. After, we see her mother initiating the ‘sex talk’ with Katey, asking her if she has any ‘questions or concerns.’ Her mother seems to perceive an increase in sexual maturity in Katey, which she misattributes to James. She urges Katey to talk to her about any feelings she is ‘not used to having.’ 

After several days of practice, which involve Katey becoming increasingly comfortable with Javier’s touch, we see her again at La Rosa Negra with Javier, seemingly enjoying herself. However, the psychocultural and sexual distance between her, Javier, and Cuba is still palpable. Javier attempts to dance provocatively with her, but she shows signs of discomfort. In one swift motion, he brushes her to the side and begins dancing with another girl. Katey leaves, saddened. He finds her and offers her an explanation for having done so. Ostensibly hurt, Katey assures him that everything was ‘fine.’ He asks her, ‘Why are you so afraid to let me lead you?’ ‘I’m not,’ she responds. ‘You are. When you’re ready to say you’re afraid, let me know.” 

The next day, Katey returns to the dance room of the resort and finds the older male teacher again. She tells him that she has decided to attend the dance contest, but explains that she is having doubts about her actual ability to do it. She explains that she is ‘flowing’ and ‘being free’ and allowing herself to be taken by the music, and yet it is still not enough. She expresses unto him the dialogue she had with Javier about being afraid. “Are you?” the male teacher asks. Katey refuses, to which he says, “That’s too bad.” He proceeds to have a personal dance lesson with her, where he teaches her how to ‘relax’ and move more smoothly. As they look into each other’s eyes, she asks him, “What did you mean when you said ‘that’s too bad?” “If you can’t move through your fear and connect with yourself, there’s absolutely no way you’re gonna connect with your partner.” “Listen,” he responds,  “I know that it’s scary as hell to let another person touch that part of you. But if you do, it’s worth it.” She and the dance instructor begin to dance together, and she transformatively becomes adept in the dance. 

She returns to Javier’s house and finds him behind the gate (symbolising his political oppression and the island-prison he is in) and admits, “Okay, I am.” “You’re what?” he asks as he seductively looks into her eyes and passes his hands down the bars which separate him and her. “Afraid,” she admits. 

In the next scene, we see Javier shirtless with Katey on the beach, where he instructs her on the ways of Afro-Caribbean dance. They dance in the water, and he tells her, “It’s a dance about being exactly who you want to be in that moment. It has to feel and look as natural as the waves.” His hands glide down her body, and she allows herself to be taken by his hands. 

After dancing together, Javier discloses his family history and the experience he had as a child as a victim of political persecution. He talks about how his father was betrayed and killed by counterrevolutionaries and how the experience led him to mature quickly to help take care of his family. He seems to experience a moment of illumination when he expresses the idea that if they win the contest, then perhaps he could take his family with ‘them’ to America. 

The scene changes, and the duo are found in a warehouse of some sort, watching a recording of Katey’s parents dancing with one another projected onto a curtain. “Do you see how much they want to be in each other’s arms?” Javier asks. “For us to dance together… that’s how it has to be.” Katey then invites Javier to dance with her while the video of her parents plays in the background. What ensues is a moment of passion hitherto unachieved by the duo in the movie. They spend practically the entirety of the dance face-to-face, with their bodies pressed against one another. Katey, for the first time in the film, allows Javier’s touch to travel throughout her body. For the first time, Katey seems to indulge herself in the lascivious gazes of Javier. The camera then moves behind the transparent curtain, and we see the duo dancing. Face-to-face, Javier holds onto Katey by her hair while she swings up and down, very closely resembling sex. At the climax of intimacy, the duo are interrupted, and Katey returns home. 

The night of the competition arrives. Katey’s family has arrived, as well as James’. Her parents do not know that Katey herself will be dancing. Suddenly, Katey and Javier are dancing together, showcasing their much-practised sensual dance to the audience, judges, and her personal acquaintances. To the Cubans, this dance is stellar. To Katey’s Anglo-Saxon American personal circle, this dance is absolutely scandalous, and the fact that Katey has been doing this behind their back is entirely unacceptable, much more so having done thusly in front of James’ family. At the end of their dance, Katey and Javier kiss for the first time in the entire movie. This causes absolute rage for her parents, who interpret this as an act of defiance. At the end of their dance, everyone applauded them, except Katey’s personal circle (with the exception of her sister). Ultimately, they enter the final round. They kiss each other once again in absolute joy. 

The racist and classist attitudes of Katey’s parents are exposed in the next scene when, baffled, they reprimand her. They are disgusted that she would “Kiss a Cuban pool boy in front of everyone.” Her mother is particularly offended at how Katey has treated James by such an action. Katey asserts that she never liked James herself; rather, her mother liked James for her because he fits her ‘perfect country club world.’ “There’s nothing wrong with that world,” she responds. “Did it ever occur to you that he might be using you? A nice American girl that can be his ticket out of here?” This situation heightens when her mother hits her across the face. Katey leaves, and her father chases her. She informs him that she is going to Javier and she will dance with him in the final competition, no matter what he or her mother opines. He relents. 

Eventually, the night of the final competition arrives, but is interrupted by Javier’s brother and some of his associates when they infiltrate the event and attempt to poison the cocktails of the Batista police. Their efforts are thwarted, and gunshots are fired.

After being separated, Katey finds Javier alive and well. Javier notifies her that the goals of the Communist Revolution have been fulfilled. In joy, they leave for the beach, where Katey surrenders her virginity unto him. Their hands explore each other, and they drown in each other’s gazes and kisses. The dawn arrives, and Javier informs Katey that the Communist Party is going to expel the Americans from the island. Katey, optimistically, opines against this, saying that if the purpose is to give people their freedom, why would they do such a thing? Javier clarifies that it is Cuban people who will gain their freedom, not Americans. Katey tells him that she can bring him with her to America. He asks her if the objective was to liberate Cuba from Batista, why would he leave now that the Communist Party succeeded? Katey questions whether Cuba will indeed prosper under Fidel, yet Javier insists, “My father died for this. I have to believe it will.” She arrives back to the hotel, where her mother informs her that her father was making arrangements to return to America. She is heartbroken. 

She returns to Javier’s home. The first thing she tells him is “I am going to miss you.” “I am going to miss you too,” he replies. “I am taking you with me.” “I am keeping you here.” The two share a bittersweet kiss and begin to dance with one another.

The final scene of the movie shows Katey and Javier during her final night in Havana. They dance together, and Katey harnesses her sensuality like never before. Katey then delivers the final words of the film: “We didn’t know when we would see each other again, but we knew that this wasn’t our last dance.” 

ANALYSIS

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights revolves around the struggle between desire and oppression. Desire itself is not limited to sexuality. It is also manifest in the desire for freedom, yearning, and, in some respects, money. It is for this reason that all of the characters in the film can be said to struggle with desire and oppression in one way or another. Katey’s father desires financial success yet struggles with the oppressive influence of his boss (James’ father). Susie desires maturity yet struggles with the reality of her young age. Javier desires freedom and struggles against the dictatorship of Batista and the realities of poverty. James desires Katey and struggles against Javier. Katey desires mature sexuality, yet struggles in manifesting it. 

The story of Havana Nights, however, is precisely about Katey discovering the masculine eros and setting her feminine eros free through it. Katey, throughout the movie, awakens to this new world of passion that she never knew before. Her move to Havana quite literally incites her sexual development. Throughout the movie, we witness how Katey awakens to her sexuality. Learning how to dance ‘Cuban’ becomes equivalent to learning how to feel desire (and its acceptance). It is when Katey first visits La Rosa Negra that she bites into the forbidden fruit and is illuminated. It is in this voyeuristic scene of sweaty bodies, groping, and liberated sexuality that Katey witnesses the ability of the feminine to be sexually liberated by the masculine. 

It is in the very moment Katey joins Javier in dance that she ‘enters his world.’ The whole time she has been living in Cuba, she was never ‘in’ Cuba. However, it was in this moment that she entered Cuba fully, and Cuba entered her. When dancing with Javier in the club, she was not experiencing Cuba as an American, but as a Cuban herself. It is during this dance that the song ‘Represent, Cuba’ by the Cuban group Orishas comes on. Orishas are Afro-Caribbean deities. Hence, Katey is experiencing something beyond herself — a world beyond the Anglo-Saxon, White-American Protestant world she formerly lived in. This is something terrifying, and yet equally enchanting, tantalising, and exciting. The song itself says “Bring down your last defence, feel your innocence slip into the night /  I am the heat inside when rhythm and love collide, let me introduce myself.” In this moment with Javier, desire and passion are introducing themselves to her. As she shouts the ‘Cuba’ refrain, she is introjecting ‘Cubanness’ more into herself. Once she has introduced this Cubanness into herself, it can never be undone. Hence, at the end of the movie, she tells Javier, “I am taking you with me.” Not only was she referring to the flame of masculine eros, but also to his Cubanness. The character of ‘Katey’ represents the listener of the song ‘Represent, Cuba’ who is being invited by the singers to let go of their inhibitions and participate in the freeing sensation of liberated sexuality in the dusky, hot nights of Havana.

Katey’s relationship with her own body evolves throughout the movie. In the beginning of the film, we see an awkward, virginal Katey move insecurely and dressed conservatively. At the end, we see Katey fully transformed, liberated, revealed, and initiated into the rites of Cupid. Dancing becomes an innuendo for having sex. Learning how to dance, then, becomes synonymous with learning how to have sex. It is for this reason that when Javier asks Katey, “Why are you scared of letting me lead you?” the question becomes the equivalent of “Why are you scared of surrendering bodily and sexually to me?” The older man instructs her in dance (desire) as Philetas in Daphnis and Chloe. One of the functions of the archetype of the older man is to serve as the illuminator of the mysteries of Eros. In Daphnis and Chloe, Philetas discloses to the pair the mysteries of love and sex. The archetype, though not engaging with her directly, gives the girl (and boy) the keys, which they can use to participate in this mystery. This is similar to the older woman who initiates the young boy (also represented in the story), though the man’s virginity is not held in the same regard as the girl's. The sexual act naturally moves them into womanhood and manhood, but the boy is expected to be a man already with the girl, while the girl is expected to become a woman through the man. Thus, the boy who has awakened to desire must initiate the girl into desire only once he has already awakened himself to it. It is for this reason that the older woman is typically shown to initiate the younger boy with direct experience, whereas the older man never teaches the girl by experience, but by wisdom. He, as Prometheus to humans, demonstrates to the girl the fire of desire without causing her to burn. This experience is reserved for the love interest. The male love interest crosses the girl over the threshold and brings her from girlhood into womanhood. Perhaps this can explain why, as Lindner (2011) notes, Katey’s character is never portrayed as out of breath or sweaty, while Javier's is. The movie does an excellent job of serving the female gaze and indulging the viewer in the sight of Javier’s body. By doing this, the movie illustrates Javier’s character as the sexual being who brings Katey’s ‘inactive’ sexuality into a state of activity, dance, and motion. His body is heavily eroticised — perhaps even in ways that are unfulfilled with Katey. Javier becomes a figure of desire and to be desired. This corroborates my premise that Javier in the story represents the masculine Eros. The movie provides the actor Diego Luna as an eroticised Latin image for both male and female viewer — breaking the traditional taboo of film. This does not only apply to Javier, but to James as well. In the beginning of the movie, when Katey is contemplating him at the pool, the viewer’s gaze (identified with Katey’s) scans the latitude of his body as he emerges from the pool. Both the viewer and Katey are indulged in the sight of his back, chest, abdomen, and much of his thighs and legs due to his small shorts. His wet swimming shorts reveal the outline of his underlying features as well, having emerged from the pool. The act of emerging from water represents orgasm, hence the birth of Venus, who emerged from the sea. 

In the beginning of the movie, it is clear that Katey has not yet been initiated into the erotic mysteries. She is asked to analyse a passage from Homer, clearly about sex, yet she is able to take a much more philosophical interpretation. This recitation of Homer also serves a symbolic purpose by serving as an allusion to Havana's nightlife and Cuban people. Despite her initial intellectualisation, her transition into mature sexuality as the movie progresses is notable. It is for this reason that her younger sister is jealous of her – she is jealous of her older sister's sexual advancement in contrast to her own. Her parents control her desire. They have imprisoned her sexuality and even taken control of it by the deliberate arrangement of her and James. When she breaks free from the tyranny of her parents, she is finally able to experience love and passion on her own. 

The repression of Cubans' creativity (seen in the repression of singing, art, etc.) and freedom of expression represents the repression of desire. The Body is the vessel of Culture, Self, & Desire. The Soul (humanity, creativity, agency) resides within the Body, as does Desire; hence, both Desire and Soul arise from the same place and cannot be repressed. It isn’t until Batista flees the country in the movie and the city of Havana celebrates this that freedom is felt and the protagonist, Katey, engages in sex for the first time. She is finally no longer afraid of sex (as Javier is of Batista) and surrenders unto the sea of passion and desire which she has spent so long searching for. Dance, thus, becomes the equivalent of freedom: sexual, cultural, political freedom. Very soon after, the North Americans are expelled by Fidel, and the movie concludes, signifying that Javier served his purpose of initiation. The last bittersweet words of the movie, spoken during her final night in Havana, demonstrate that maturity has been attained. It hurts, and she mourns the fact that she has to leave, because maturity itself hurts. She has to leave the sweet realm of late adolescence and early adulthood and grow into maturity, taking what she has learned with her to the real world (North America). She is not the same person she was. She is taking back with her a portion of “Cubanness”. She is no longer fully American and carries within her a spark of Masculine Eros. 

Throughout the entirety of the movie, there is a recurring motif of Katey’s shoulder strap falling down the side of her arm. At the end of the first dance at La Rosa Negra, we see her strap fall down the side. In the beginning, Javier adjusts her strap after he walks her home. During every single dance scene, her strap falls down the side. At the end, and even in the cover of the movie, it is still down. The fallen strap with the exposed arm is the equivalent of the Venus Callipyge. This Venus is half revealed, half disclosed, with the fore of her body concealed, yet the rear and her legs exposed. In cabaret and burlesque, this is manifest in the dance move involving settling the hip onto the back leg and doing a slight plié with the front while exposing the large majority of the leg to the audience. This move, like Katey’s constantly falling strap, is a sign of the unrevealed sensuality of the woman — promising, yet undisclosed. Yet at last, towards the end of the movie, we see her first kiss with Javier. It is during the dance performance that she and Javier have this kiss that she discovers her sexuality. This is akin to the “true love's kiss” curse remedy in fairytales, in which the princess is awakened from the libidinal sleep of latency and brought forth into mature sexuality (Bettelheim, 1976). Javier awakens the sexual libido within Katey by his kiss. It is for this reason that Havana Nights, in sum, can be interpreted as a coming-of-age erotic initiation story. 

It has been 22 years since Havana Nights was released. Politically, the movie conjures many questions. Why are so many lovers and families separated by the politics of Cuba? Does love truly conquer all amidst political oppression? Sadly, the viewer is privy to information that both Katey and Javier are unaware of: the economic and political situation of Cuba has not improved and has become worse with time. This augments the sense of tragedy and drama when watching the film, since the viewer knows what will happen to Cuba, yet not to Javier and Katey. It is for this reason that the end of the film, though vivid and filled with excitement, strikes an emotional chord. Her last dance with Javier is the completion of her initiation undergone through mourning and loss. The final wish of the film “this wasn’t our last dance” indicates that Katey, in the face of the reality principle, confronted the loss of the Cuba fantasy by bringing the introjected Cuba (and Javier) within her to America. Though her Erotic strivings (living with Javier happily ever after in Cuba) did not succeed, Eros was still able to survive within her. 

Melissa Blanco Borelli (2014), a scholar of the body, examined Havana Nights and opined that the highly trained, awe-inspiring body in dance is a figure of transgression and rebellion. Bridging Cindy García’s (2014) analysis of Havana Nights, Borelli analyses Katey’s body, during and after the reception of Latin dance training (not before), as well as her recurring fetishised red dress and the Cuban dance itself, as objects of desire. Her body is transgressive in the fact that, as a White middle-class American who inhabits and embodies the corresponding spaces, she moves to and fro between working-class sexualised Latin-Caribbean spaces and becomes more like them, bringing this ‘Cubanness’ back into her White-American spaces and resembling them less. In fact, it is precisely because of this that James’ unwanted sexual advance manifests – Katey, after wearing Yolanda’s fetishised red dress and embodying the Cuban space around her, is no longer American or associated with American sexuality, but rather, the Cuban one she has introjected. She is no longer a vessel of the rigid White Protestant feminine Eros, but the fiery Latin-Caribbean Eros. It is because of this that James, a White American young man, is able to transgress the norms under which he is expected to abide by. Hence, Borelli assured that her body is not only a class transgression, but a sexual one as well. She seems to agree with me in that dance and sexuality are intertwined, yet while I opine that ‘dance’ is merely a euphemism for sex, Borelli opines that dance is the vehicle through which desire can choreograph itself. Cuban dance, she frames, is the object which beckons Katey’s desire to awaken, both through her encounters with Javier and through, as she points out, the dance instructor. It is as though the framing of Katey’s age at 18, though a little overripe, was done so as to ensure her sexualisation was not dangerous to the imagination.  

García writes that Katey’s sexual awakening happens at the expense of female Cuban identities, but I disagree. I opine that the discovery of the feminine Cuban eros as something liberating rather than restrictive (as in her upper-class Anglo-Saxon country club society) is precisely what incites Katey’s sexual maturity. A section of her article is titled with the quote of Sheila, “This is Cuba. Nobody cares what you do here.” She perceives, as I do, that Cuba is positioned in the film as a place of liberty and sexual freedom. García agrees with me on many, if not most, points – especially in the fact that the movie, from the very few seconds of the movie up until the end, deliberately presents the United States-Cuba dichotomy to situate the viewer as an observer of the contrast between the two worlds. In addition, Sheila’s words within the first few minutes of the film introduce Cuba as a place of relaxed attitudes and personal freedom. James’ mother, during the dance competition, even comments that “the girls coming over from the States these days get a little… wild.” A point I had not considered before was about the anachronistic musical pieces featured in the film: Wyclef Jean’s “Dance Like This”, Mya’s “Do You Only Wanna Dance”, and Orishas’ “Represent, Cuba” appear as Latin-infused hip-hop/pop pieces intended to enhance the eroticised nature of dance. She opines that the Black bodies are positioned as “dirty”, “frightening”, yet equally “fascinating”. While I do concur that the Black bodies are indeed identified as such, I advocate that the Black bodies are utilised as agents of desire and proxies of sexuality. The same adjectives which García contends are used to describe the Black bodies, I equally contend, can apply to sexuality itself – especially Katey’s attitude towards it at the beginning of the film. 

Yolanda transfers her feminine Cuban sexuality to Katey by lending her the red dress, perhaps due to the fact that, as García observes, Yolanda perceives Katey’s blossoming sexuality. Hence, Javier’s later reaction to seeing Katey wearing it: “You look so Cuban!” García makes an interesting observation that I, even after watching the film many times, had never noticed before. When James makes a sexual advance towards Katey, he rips the dress. This act makes this encounter an assault not only upon Katey, but upon her dress as well. García posits that this critical moment of the film (the ripping of the red Cuban dress) represents a violation of the bodies of Black Cuban minorities. While not disagreeing, I would also like to add that this act also represents a tearing off of the mask of Cubanness from Katey. James has revealed that beneath the Cuban dress remains an Anglo-Saxon American young girl. 

García positions the relation between Katey and Yolanda as one of displacement, the former consuming the position of the latter. She mentions that for eight seconds, we see Yolanda and Katey twirling together joyfully in their room during a musical sequence. As this transpires, the camera causes Yolanda’s body to move out of view, with Katey’s becoming more approximated. García opines that this causation of the disappearance of Yolanda and the subsequent replacement of Esmeralda as the Queen of La Rosa Negra represents the consumption of the bodies and identities of Latin/Caribbean minorities. While I respect her view, I position these events in the film as representations of the introjection of feminine Cuban sexuality as Katey undergoes the process of learning by imitation. The subject being learnt, of course, is desire. 

The triumph of the revolution frustrates Katey's fantasy of becoming a sexy Latina, winning the trophy, and gaining a Cuban boyfriend. It also disrupts Javier’s fantasy of winning a yanqui girlfriend, $5,000, and moving to Miami (as revealed in the book). It is this sense of unattainability which produces the bittersweetness of the ending of the film while also preserving both Katey and Javier as objects of desire in their own right. In fact, unattainability is utilised to portray the frustration of desire in the characters of the film: Carlos’ revolutionary ideals, Susie’s aspired maturity, Jeannie’s desire to be young and fulfil her dreams, Bert’s desire for success. It is precisely this sense of unattainability which makes the Cubanness so desirable to Katey. It is for this reason that Javier explains to Katey that dance is about freedom. In fact, the tagline of the film (and novel) is: “Break the rules, find your freedom, live your life.” 

The story is framed as “based on a true story,” drawing from the choreographer and producer of the film (JoAnn Jansen’s) own adolescent experience moving to Cuba and falling in love with a local boy. Jansen ties this into the meaning of the film itself, saying that the story intentionally synchronises the coming of age of Cuba with the coming of age of Katey (Kinosian, 2004). We are essentially watching the puberty of a girl and the puberty of a country – both are equally turbulent and intense. Earlier, I likened Katey’s experience of Cuba to tasting the forbidden fruit and becoming illuminated regarding the existence of sexuality. Jansen uses this exact terminology, describing Cuba as a place that has a “touch of forbidden fruit” (Kinosian, 2004). She even described the boy she met as the forbidden fruit (Tourtellotte, 2004). This type of description is precisely what characterises the Latin Lover archetype: forbidden, romantic, and passionate. It is precisely this element of mystique which makes Latin American and Mediterranean countries so ‘sexy’ to the (United States of) American imagination. It was this precise reason why Jansen mentioned that a modern version of Dirty Dancing would not have worked – since most of the “taboos are gone” (Kinosian, 2004).

In an interview with BBC (2021), Jansen mentioned her experience as an adolescent when her father moved them to Cuba to live in the Hotel Riviera and the love triangle she experienced between the American James and Carlos (Javier). She reported that her mother (like Katey’s) did not approve of Jansen’s movements. She also expressed how her mom knew that Cuban boys were ‘faster’ than American boys. She mentioned that Carlos’ brother did not like it either, since, as a communist revolutionary, it was considered unseemly to be involved with a girl from the country one is trying to purge. She confirms that Carlos was indeed a revolutionary, as Javier strove to be in the movie. Jansen, urged by the witnessing of the violence of the surging revolution, described how horrible and full of tears the parting between her and Carlos was. In her own words, she stated, “We knew that we wouldn’t [stay in touch]... We didn’t know if we would see each other again.” She tells the interviewer that she never saw Carlos again and deduced that he was probably killed due to his involvement in the revolution. 

It would seem then that the purpose of the film is to communicate that, though bodies may be oppressed by politics, society, economics, and other things, the desire within them can never be oppressed or die. The body is often the target of control and punishment (Foucault, 1975/1995), but it is also the vehicle of speech – particularly protest. Throughout the film, we see how dance itself becomes a mode of protest. Desire and dance are distinct from other forms of protest in that they are produced by, through, and from within the body. Thus, liberated sexuality equals liberation from oppression. Throughout its tumultuous history, Cuba has not been able to unshackle itself completely from oppression in any regard. Dance and desire, however, bring people together. The erotic dancing of Havana Nights (and in general) represents unity amidst adversity. Through a Foucaultian lens, we can understand that the body via dance dilates by the experience of being ‘beyond itself.’ In that moment, the body becomes secondary to a sort of enthusiasm rising from the soul, and the individual experiences himself as something greater, yet still quite himself. The body, through this sensation, is liberated from the experience of oppression. Since dance expresses what words cannot, the Body expresses what freedom of speech can’t when taken away. The body itself, in this way, is an instrument of protest. The body as a vessel of desire uses desire to communicate that it cannot be repressed. Hence, the message of Havana Nights can be reduced to the following: In the midst of oppression, Eros always rises triumphant.

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