Ballet Nacional de Cuba

On U.S. tour

May 31–June 26

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A U.S. tour by the Ballet Nacional de Cuba is always an occasion for intrigue, said Brian Seibert in The Village Voice. The last time the storied company performed here, in 2003, five dancers defected. Five more made the jump just this spring, when the troupe visited Toronto. The incentives have long been the same: The defectors speak of a yearning to perform pieces not yet approved by hidebound Cuban authorities, and they often land work that pays 100 times what they earned at home. Still, this time is different, because ballet in Cuba has hit a crossroads.

Cuba occupies a special place in the world of ballet, said Lisa Traiger in The Washington Post. “If you want to know what 19th-century ballet looked like,” says the dance critic Octavio Roca, “go see the Cubans.” In speed of movement, they are the equals of America’s best, but “the dancers’ upper bodies tend to be more elegant, with strong backs and subtle, graceful necks.” They also dance with a passion that might only be possible in a country whose people follow ballet “like Americans follow football.” One woman is largely responsible for that legacy: Ballet Nacional’s founder, Alicia Alonso, who “still rules the 150-member company with a velvet fist,” six decades after creating it. A former prima ballerina herself, she’s ensured that training still reflects the company’s direct ties to classical Russian ballet. But Alonso is 90, and her grip is fading.

The company’s performances in the nation’s capital last week captured both sides of Alonso’s influence, said Sarah Kaufman, also in the Post. The dancers’ Kennedy Center debut featured a “decidedly strange program” that offered mere tastes of such chestnuts as Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. Yet only two nights later, the full production of Don Quixote was so dazzling it “made you fall in love with ballet all over again.” Its star, Viengsay Valdés, is a “special dancer,” capable of stopping time when she takes a balance. Will she still be with the company after next week’s West Coast dates? Only time will tell.