FEBRUARY 13 & 14

Ballet Hispanico owns as many styles of dance as the Spanish-speaking world has dialects. There are pointe shoes and low-heeled dance pumps, jazz shoes and bare feet—and more forms of Spanish music than one can imagine. In its current series, Alberto Alonso’s “!Si, Se§or! !Es Mi Son!,” set to Gloria Estefan’s Spanish pop, begins with a carnival of Afro-Cuban spirits (danced by guest artists from D.C.-based Maru Montero Dance Company) and drums before transforming into a slow, formalized rhumba in which the dancing couples’ restraint heightens the sensuality on the dance floor. “Poema Infinito,” choreographed by Maria Rovira, uses the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, read in both Spanish and English, to portray the anguish and separation the writer felt during a nine-month stay in New York in 1927. In “Ritmo y Ruido” (“Rhythm and Noise,” pictured) choreographed by Ann Reinking of Chicago fame, dancers clad in various configurations of black mesh and Spandex prowl the stage. This finale, full of high kicks, acrobatic lifts, and swiveling hips, will leave audiences longing to go to Cuba or, at least, Habana Village. Performances start at 8 p.m. Friday & Saturday at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW. $22-28. (202) 833-9800. (Holly Bass)