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U LAKA LAKA LA
Carnaval La Habana 2003

genre:  Comparsa, Orisha, Abakua, Conga
video type:  Demonstration
runtime:  52 Minutes
location:  Havana, Cuba
producer: Boogalu Productions

The chorus "U Laka Laka La" was on everyone's lips in Carnaval La Habana 2003, a call to dance, celebrate, and let it all hang out. Carnaval in Havana is a tropical deluge of color, gyrating hips, and vibrant drumming; the life blood of the Cuban people - a marvel to behold.

2003 was the 180th year anniversary of Carnaval La Habana, a spectacular festival that incorporates an extraordinary array of Cuba's diverse cultural traditions. For an entire week the city's Malecon seafront drive was awash with hot rhythms, color, and gyrating bodies, along with the rain showers and spray from the sea. The wind and rain were overwhelming at times, but carnaval prevailed and became its own force of nature, blending with the elements.

Parade groups known as comparsas, dominate carnaval, and are composed of a percussion section playing the conga rhythm, dancers in stunning costumes, and floats. Traditional groups, such as El Alacran (The Scorpion) have distinctive themes rooted in the cultural history of Cuba. Comparsas that have formed in more recent years, such as Los Guaracheros de Regla, rely on innovation and style to capture the public's heart.

Special Features Include:
• children's carnaval with dance groups and clowns
• ten of Havana's most outstanding parade comparsa groups
• costuming of incredible color and style
• carnaval floats (carrozas)
• salsa Cubana street dancers
• percussion and folklore ensembles
• giant puppets (muñecones)
• interview with Director of La Jardinera
• slideshow of performing artists

List of Performing Groups:
Grupo de Danza Thaba
Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba
Carroza Orgullo Latino
Comparsa La FEU
Comparsa La Jardinera
La ENA
Efik Yaguaremo - Abakuá Society
Comparsa Textilera, Santiago de Cuba
El Maestro del Tanque, street artist
Agrupación Danzaria La Giraldilla
Comparsa Los Marqueses de Atares
Comparsa Los Guaracheros de Regla
Comparsa El Alacran
Comparsa Jovenes del Este
Carroza El Tropicana Nightclub
Carroza Banda Los Angeles de La Habana
Comparsa La Sultana
Carroza Los Caballeros del Ritmo
Comparsa Componedores de Batea

Reviews
Norman Weinstein, The Beat Magazine: Vol. 23 #6, 2004
"U Laka Laka La" is a mellifluous carnival chant that probably is similar in substance to that New Orleans Mardi Gras saying, "Let the good times roll" and this 52-minute film splendidly shows the residents of Havana doing exactly that. Once you enter into the spirit of the film (nearly zero verbal explanation associated with most scenes) it is a joyously entertaining film to watch time and again. Until the closing credits rolled by, I completely lost track of how many different musical and dance companies I had watched, or who they were. So if you want to intellectually grasp what a Caribbean carnival is all about, or what makes the Havana carnival form unique, you'll have to look elsewhere.

But through repeated viewing, I've come to appreciate what the filmaker has captured: the dramatic musical rhythms infusing the entire Havana carnival experience, an experience that sturdily resists conventional intellectual analysis. It is an overwhelmingly, emotionally cathartic release from restrictive political and sexual strictures. A brief excerpt from a neighborhood music association re-enacting slavery days, with a mock slavemaster "whipping” sugarcane harvesters, effectively serves as a serious reminder of where the Cuban carnival originated two centuries ago, a slave celebration of the end of the sugar harvest.

The remainder of the film shows 18 other music and dance troupes, many of them amateur and comprised of students and workers, strutting their stuff. There is lots of magnificent dancing, from the stylized Santeria dances of a national folklore group to spontaneous fits of free-form boogieing among the crowd. A brief passage of young children dancing is charming and captivating. Hundreds of talented drummers, unfortunately none individually identified, perform with great gusto. The sole interpretative episode involves a five-minute interview with an elderly founder of a neighborhood music/dance association. She helpfully explains how her particular musical carnival group came together as an artistic company after the process of cleaning up the landscape after a tropical storm. Appropriately, they performed in the 2003 carnival in costumes and with props suggesting lush tropical vegetation.

All is not song and dance, although that dominates the proceedings. There are displays of giant puppets as well as a parade of classic cars (think Chevy Impalas circa 1957). Costumes are constantly fascinating to watch. One dance group won in what looked like Art Deco cheerleader outfits. And dozens of female dancers wore less, remarkably so, than might be found in a Las Vegas nightclub review, though it is tough to transpose Vegas chorus line dancers with women in Havana on a "Latin Pride" flow.

This film washes over you with bright costumes, loud drumming, Cuban salsa, a hint of Afro-Cuban ritual music, and lots of faces of Cubans having the time of their lives. One scene often dissolves into another without a hint of a logical transition, very carnival-like film editing. As a musical documentary of the Havana carnival, it might be lacking. None of the big-name acts like Los Van Van are filmed. As an atmospheric document of what it would feel like to be there witnessing this musical and dance extravaganza, it succeeds totally. It made me think of that composition by our greatest living jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, of Caribbean heritage, "Don't Stop the Carnival". The energy of the performers and the crowd suggest the impossibility of anyone even trying to stop such celebration for long.