By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          HAVANA (AP) -- Growing up in south Texas, Septime Webre grew
          dreamy listening to the stories of his Cuban mother and aunts about the
          Caribbean island where they were born and raised, then left behind to
          seek a new life in America

          Now 37, Webre has traveled to the Cuba he once heard of, bringing
          with him a whole dance company to interpret a ballet he choreographed
          about the anecdotes of his mother, Juanita, and his aunts Mercedes and
          Betty. It is the first performance by a professional American ballet
          company on the communist island in 40 years.

          ``My American side extends to you the hand of friendship,'' the artistic
          director of the Washington Ballet said Wednesday night, speaking in
          Spanish before a crowded Mella Theater in the Vedado neighborhood
          where his mother and aunts lived as young girls.

          ``My Cuban side gives you all a fraternal hug,'' Webre added to
          thunderous applause as the curtain went up.

          The Washington Ballet, which arrived in Havana on Monday, will give
          four performances in Cuba before returning to the United States on
          Sunday.

          Alicia Alonso, Cuba's grande dame of dance and the founder of the
          internationally renowned National Ballet of Cuba, invited Webre to bring
          his company to Havana for this week's International Ballet Festival.

          Webre's Cuban mother and American father both left Cuba shortly after
          the 1959 revolution. They initially moved to Bahamas, then later settled in
          Brownsville, Texas, on the U.S. border with Mexico.

          Among the pieces Washington Ballet performed Wednesday was
          ``Mercedes y Betty,'' a combination of Cuban and jazz rhythms that
          recalls Webre's aunts. Cuban musicians joined American band members
          in interpreting the tropical orchestra sound of the 1920s and 1930s.

          ``I feel like I am reclaiming part of who I am,'' Webre said backstage
          before the performance. He said the memories his mother and aunts
          recounted ``were not my memories, but I knew that they were part of
          who I am. Now I am finally discovering the part of me that is Latino.''

          The company also performed two more traditional pieces, and a fourth
          piece set to American blues music.

          The Washington company is part of an American delegation of close to
          130 people -- dancers, musicians, painters and others -- who came as
          part of a program called ``Dialogues in Dance: Cuba 2000.''

          The program, begun a year ago, seeks to increase artistic exchanges
          between Cuba and the United States, part of President Clinton's stated
          policy to increase ``people to people'' contacts between the countries.

          Webre said he has been fascinated by the Cubans he has met, and
          impressed by their love of dance and the other fine arts, and their great
          love of books.

          ``There is truly something in the Cuban heart that celebrates life,'' said
          Webre. ``How can it be that in a country with so many economic
          problems there can still be so much fine art?''