Havana Performing Arts

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Live Cuban music and dance performances are regularly held in the city's many cultural centers. Some of these centers also host more traditional music and dance shows as well as literary events, plays, and art exhibits. At UNEAC, for example, you can find everything from lectures to performances of Santería rituals. The Palacio del Segundo Cabo in the Plaza de Armas is another literary and artistic hub.

If your Spanish is good, try to take in a play. These are held not only in theaters and cultural centers but also in such surprising venues as the Museo de la Ciudad in the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, the Casa Natal de José Martí, and the Museo de Arte Colonial.

Havana teems with dancers. Drop by the Escuela Provincial de Ballet (Provincial Ballet School) at Calle L and Calle 19 and have a look at the 220 little swans-in-training. Each year 45 of 800 nine-year-old applicants begin working here. After five years, some 15 of them (and those chosen from the six other provincial schools) make it to the new Escuela Nacional de Ballet (National Ballet School) at Calle Prado y Calle Trocadero, under the supervision of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba's director and prima ballerina, Alicia Alonso. Other large dance troupes include Christi Dominguez's Compañia de Ballet de la Televisión Cubana (Ballet Company of the Cuban Television Network), the Compañia de Dansa Contemporánea de Cuba (Cuban Contemporary Dance Company), and the Ballet Nacional Folklórico (National Folklore Ballet). Reinaldo Suarez's Danz-Art and Regla Salvent's Compañia de Dansa del Cuerpo Armónico are among the city's many small ensembles, along with Marianela Bovan's Danza Abierta and Rosario Cárdenas's Danza Combinatoria.