Clay­ton Clarke

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

T he in­flu­ence of dance in Latin Amer­i­can cul­ture took cen­tre stage at the fifth edi­tion of Latin Night, host­ed by the Na­tion­al Li­brary and In­for­ma­tion Sys­tem Au­thor­i­ty (NALIS) on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, ear­li­er this month.

Each evening high­light­ed the artistry and her­itage of a dif­fer­ent na­tion, with Venezuela, Colom­bia, Spain and Ar­genti­na show­cas­ing how dance con­tin­ues to shape their cul­tur­al iden­ti­ties.

Venezuela opened the se­ries on Oc­to­ber 1 with per­for­mances by stu­dents of Bish­op Anstey High School, who pre­sent­ed a se­lec­tion of tra­di­tion­al dances that re­flect­ed the en­er­gy and rhythm of the coun­try’s folk­loric tra­di­tions.

On Oc­to­ber 3, the spot­light turned to Colom­bia, where sal­sa took over the li­brary’s atri­um in an in­ter­ac­tive work­shop that drew more than 100 ea­ger par­tic­i­pants.

Colom­bian Am­bas­sador Syd­ney Bushe ex­pressed de­light at the strong lo­cal in­ter­est in sal­sa danc­ing.

“We de­cid­ed to do sal­sa be­cause it’s so pop­u­lar in Trinidad and To­ba­go. I dis­cov­ered that when I at­tend­ed Queen’s Hall Sal­sa Night—there were so many tal­ent­ed dancers there. To be a good sal­sa dancer, you have to learn how to move,” he said.

Spain’s con­tri­bu­tion came through the fiery el­e­gance of Fla­men­co, per­formed by dancer Nali­ni Akal ac­com­pa­nied by gui­tarist Ste­fan Roach. Akal, who has stud­ied and per­formed Fla­men­co for more than 25 years, ex­plained that the dance is deeply root­ed in rhythm and ex­pres­sion.

“I’ve been train­ing in Fla­men­co every year and con­stant­ly do­ing re­search,” she said. “There are more than 52 man­i­fes­ta­tions of Fla­men­co, each with its own com­pás—a rhyth­mic struc­ture that de­fines the style. I es­pe­cial­ly love bulería, which goes ‘un, dos, tres, un, dos, tres, un, dos, tres.’”

Span­ish Am­bas­sador Cristi­na Pérez Gutiér­rez praised the lo­cal in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the dance, not­ing how cul­tur­al ex­change en­rich­es artis­tic ex­pres­sion.

“To­day is spe­cial be­cause we have peo­ple from Trinidad and To­ba­go per­form­ing Fla­men­co. This blend­ing of our cul­tures shows the true rich­ness of the per­for­mance,” she said.

The se­ries con­clud­ed on Oc­to­ber 10 with Ar­genti­na’s evening themed “Tan­go Meets So­ca.”Ar­gen­tine Am­bas­sador Gus­ta­vo Pan­di­ani of­fered in­sight in­to Tan­go’s ori­gins, trac­ing its evo­lu­tion from African-Ar­gen­tine roots to its glob­al recog­ni­tion.

“The dance we now call Tan­go was born in African-Ar­gen­tine venues at­tend­ed by com­padri­tos—young, work­ing-class men who brought the dance in­to Buenos Aires’ neigh­bour­hoods,” Pan­di­ani ex­plained. “There, African rhythms met Ar­gen­tine mi­lon­ga mu­sic, and new steps be­gan to evolve. By the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry, Tan­go—as both a dance and a form of pop­u­lar mu­sic—had be­come a defin­ing part of Buenos Aires’ cul­ture.”

Through rhythm, move­ment, and shared pas­sion, Latin Night 2025 proved that dance re­mains a uni­ver­sal lan­guage—one that bridges na­tions, cel­e­brates her­itage, and in­vites every­one to join in the move­ment.