It’s the latest attempt at cultural diplomacy for two long-estranged neighbors with similar tastes in arts and entertainment. For two consecutive nights, Cubans packed Havana’s Karl Marx Theater to watch more than 50 American dancers leap, twirl and float across the stage.

It's the latest attempt at cultural diplomacy for two long-estranged neighbors with similar tastes in arts and entertainment. For two consecutive nights, Cubans packed Havana's Karl Marx Theater to watch more than 50 American dancers leap, twirl and float across the stage.

Kevin McKenzie, artistic director of American Ballet Theater, stood by a fluted pillar in a lofty studio at the National Ballet School here on Friday, keeping time with his hands as a group of male students practiced jetés in a circle.

Foreign policy is typically the executive branch’s domain because that is the branch that decides who the US negotiates with and what gets offered in those negotiations. However, Tuesday’s Republican victory, particularly the GOP takeover of the House and leadership of some key committees, has the ability to affect the US's dialogue, and in some cases policy, on a few key US relationships with other countries.

Cuban President Raul Castro joined an American archbishop and other Roman Catholic leaders Wednesday to open a national seminary on the outskirts Havana, the first religious construction on the communist-run island in more than a half century.

American Ballet Theatre dancers promised pirouettes - not politics - during the troupe's historic visit to Cuba this week, the first by the New York-based company since shortly after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution turned the island into a U.S. nemesis.

Delivering invigorating Latin jazz was only part of pianist Chucho Valdés's agenda Saturday night at the Warner Theatre; he also affirmed alliances between various Afro-Cuban idioms and several American jazz legacies.

The New York Philharmonic canceled a trip to Havana last year because the United States government refused to allow its wealthy patrons to go along, saying they would essentially be tourists. That violates sanctions banning most travel to Cuba.