HAVANA — Parts of Havana regained electricity on a recent Sunday afternoon following a nationwide blackout, and within hours Alberto González and Mercedes Cruz reopened their weekly dance night, Los Tradicionales, at a historic social hall in one of the capital's oldest neighborhoods, a few blocks from the Caribbean Sea. The 72-year-old couple, who have hosted the event for decades, prepared as soon as it became clear the power would hold — Cruz styled her hair and put on a floral dress while González contacted event staff.

The dance night takes place in Havana's community center for Cubans of Arab descent, a building with old tile floors and walls hung with faded photographs from Yasser Arafat's visit to Cuba. The center shares an electrical grid with a local hospital, meaning it only loses power when the national grid collapses entirely. Once electricity was restored, the couple turned on the air conditioner to cool the hall. The event is named Los Tradicionales — meaning "the traditional ones" — because it aims to preserve Cuba's dance heritage, including rumba, timba, and casino.

As cell signal returned that afternoon, González's phone filled with messages asking whether the dance night would open and whether there was power. By sundown, a line had formed outside the community center. González greeted arriving guests individually as they entered the hall, where a staff that included a ticket-taker, a deejay, and a popcorn machine operator was ready.

Yaima Pacheco Muñoz, 37, an economist who had been without steady electricity at home for days, and Míosoti Bell Leon, 52, were the first to start dancing when the deejay played a Bad Bunny song remixed with a salsa beat. Many attendees greeted the two women with kisses on the cheek as they arrived. A Sean Paul track later in the evening drew both back to the dance floor.

"Sunday nights are therapy. This is the only place where I can relieve the stress," Pacheco Muñoz said.

The event drew an older crowd, with about twice as many women as men. Nurys Núñez Arellano, 61, danced with her partner German Fernández Miranda, 66, who also watched other dancers while eating popcorn. Writer Eugenio Leiva, who works at the community center's library one day a week, attended as well. All but one of his five children had left Cuba because they did not see a future there.

"Dancing is one of the few things that they haven't taken from us," Leiva said. "We're in our worst crisis. But we're united."

Roberto Rodríguez, a 48-year-old construction worker who works seven days a week, attends the dance night every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. "I dance, I have a beer, I talk with my friends, and then I'm ready for whatever the week throws at me," Rodríguez said. "Dancing is a language. It is our mother tongue."

González and Cruz have continued hosting Los Tradicionales despite power failures and shortages of food and water.