Guest post by Jan Garvey
Read Part 1 here

Guest post by Jan Garvey

It’s not a long flight from Toronto to Cuba, but it is a world away.  As a ballet teacher, I’m on a mission with a friend to fully immerse myself in the biennial International Dance Festival for its entire nine days – watching classes, rehearsals and about 33 international dance company performances in the evenings.  After a bus ride into the old city of  Havana, we settle into our hotel, the Sevilla, which is a bit weatherworn but has fabulous bones – soaring ceilings, huge shuttered windows, courtyards which channel the breeze brilliantly...and slow quirky elevators, bathroom fixtures which need to be coaxed and lukewarm heat from the hairdryer and lukewarm cold from the mini-fridge.  The building is definitely from another century, and, sure enough, there are historical pictures on the walls with successive shots of the hotel front  from the early 1900’s.  Together they are a time capsule with a changing parade of people and vehicles from each decade since – covering over one hundred  years!

When we discover our busy schedule ahead of us, we realize we will have to give up dinner each day to fit it all in – and we agree to have a big breakfast and a substantial lunch in the mid-afternoon, and see how that works.  It worked well, and conveniently, we are walking distance to the main venues we will be frequenting – the Gran Teatro and the Escuela de Ballet Nacional de Cuba.  In fact the Prado, the promenade that we take every evening to and from the Gran Teatro,  is a study itself in the Cuban sensibility;  artists with their kiosks, families, kids on skateboards, dogs running free, and music, always.  Interestingly, no neon lights anywhere – just lovely lampposts from another age that grace the so-civilized pedestrian walkway.  The weather varies between warm and hot;  sometimes it rains but mostly not.  It’s usually a passing shower or sometimes stronger than that, with high winds that stop everyone briefly while waiting it out under the colonnade of a nearby building, then we all carry on our way, freshened up a little, blinking in the bright sunshine.  It’s coming to the end of the rainy season here in Cuba and people are starting to dress for winter.  Long pants and long sleeves – while we Canadians are basking in the perfect mid-twenty degree days.