Cuba for the record.

Your March article about the last Havana International Ballet Festival has struck a chord in my heart. I am Cuban by birth, and related to the Alonso brothers.

The article states that the Cuban ballet school was founded in 1960 by Fernando Alonso and Azari Plissetski. In fact, it was created in Sept. 1950, by Fernando. It was named Academia de Ballet Alicia Alonso, and it was annexed to the ballet company bearing Alicia's name, which started in Oct. 1948. Plissetski did not arrive in Havana until the early '60s, when the company had already changed its name to Ballet Nacional de Cuba, and Cuba was on its way to become a Marxist-Leninist state.

The reason Cuba produces so many fine dancers is that life is so regimented there, and being a good dancer provides the only opportunity of leaving the country. You mention the many defections that take place. The first one occurred in 1966, en masse, when 10 male dancers of the corps de ballet sought asylum in Paris during a tour.

I wish you had addressed a question of many Cuban balletomanes who live abroad: Why is it that some dancers, like Acosta and Carreno, are free to go back and forth, and others, like Rolando Sarabia Jr., have to seek asylum to leave their homeland and be able to work in a foreign country?

Celida Villalon

Oakland Gardens, NY