Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub

by Rosa Lowinger

For his part, Rodney told them to keep throwing her. “Tírenla entre ustedes, así, así,” he would croak out in a voice made raspy by his illness, drawing the movements in the air with his gnarled hands and letting his ballet stars, Argentine Henry Boyer and Cuban Miguelito Checki, block them out for the company. For Rodney, rehearsals were always fraught with as much tension as excitement. “It was frustrating to him that he could not show us the moves himself,” said Eddy Serra. When Serra joined the cast of Tropicana in 1958, Rodney was already famous, but during that first season, in 1952, the choreographer’s reputation was on the line. Omelen-ko was his trial by fire: it had to outdo not only all of Tropicana’s previous productions, but everything Rodney had done up to that point.