Leading article: Diplomatic dance

It seened for a while that the end of the Cold War and the rise of the internet had made the concept of cultural diplomacy into something of an anachronism. But the Royal Ballet's tour of Cuba is generating some of the same excitement as those great cultural exchanges of yesteryear. Of course, one might argue that this tour, in itself, is less a breakthrough than the culmination of a process which began 11 years ago when the great Cuban dancer, Carlos Acosta, joined the Royal Ballet.

But the enthusiasm with which Cubans have snapped up tickets for this tour – the first by a foreign dance company in the Communist state for three decades – suggests that live performance can still inspire like little else. Even in this age of liberalised global travel and instant communications there remains something powerful about performers crossing borders to showcase their art. Perhaps, then, not winter for cultural diplomacy, but an Indian summer.