Cuban dancers return to island that once spurned them

As a young dancer compared with ballet legends Vaslav Nijinsky and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rolando Sarabia made headlines around the world when he abandoned Cuba in 2005 for a career in the United States.

He didn’t dance in his homeland for 13 years, banned as part of a wider Cuban punishment of citizens who illegally left the country.

A company dancer for The Washington Ballet, Sarabia stalked across the stage last month in the starring male role in “Gisselle” at Cuba’s National Theater. Asked about his feelings upon performing again in Cuba, he began to cry.

Sarabia and four other renowned defectors from the Cuban National Ballet took the stage at the 26th Havana International Ballet Festival as part of a reconciliation between Cuba and its millions of expatriates and exiles.