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Balancing act: Cuban ballerina Viengsay Valdes takes bravura to new lengths.

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Some like white, others prefer black. But Viengsay Valdes, Ballet Nacional de Cuba's dazzling ballerina, likes both colors of swans. "When I've danced a good Act II Odette," she says with a grin, "I know that my Odile will be good too. It's like a reward to myself."

The dynamic ballerina is the darling of the Cubans. For them, she is the face of today's ballet--and Cuban people love ballet as much as baseball and cigars. They pack her performances or watch live broadcasts on TV to see her create sparks onstage with multiple pirouettes, or stay on balance "forever and a day." With her amazing technical abilities and her bubbly personality, she enjoys the lame of a pop star in Cuba.

Outside of Cuba, international critics rave about her. British critic Ismene Brown called her "glorious, one of the great ballerinas of our time." Mary Ellen Hunt wrote in these pages, "Viengsay Valdes could be justly famous for her rock-solid eternal balances, thrilling multiple turns, and bravura technique. But in an age of superlative technicians, it's the passion and heart that Valdes brings to her dancing that has captivated audiences from Havana to Paris."

During the International Ballet Festival of Havana last...