Dancers spun and leaped with striking energy and elasticity, keeping time with avant-garde lighting in a stirring tribute Wednesday night by Britain's Royal Ballet for Cuba's 88-year-old grande dame of dance, Alicia Alonso.

Making its first visit to the island, the 96-member troupe began with daring dances from Chroma then was joined on stage by performers from the company Alonso founded, the Cuban National Ballet.

The evening also featured a dance from Giselle, which Alonso is perhaps best known for. Former student Carlos Acosta, now with the Royal Ballet, was featured in scenes from El Corsario.

A mesmerized crowd filled Havana's majestic Gran Teatro. Alonso was a prima ballerina with some of the United States' most important companies in the 1940s and '50s. ''It's a beautiful tribute, very pretty, but it's not just for me; it's also for the people of Cuba,'' she said.

Acosta grew up in Havana and trained with Alonso but has lived overseas for more than 15 years, performing with the Royal Ballet since 1998. He has made several trips back to Cuba to perform over the years and appeared in Tuesday night's opening performance as well as Wednesday night's tribute.

''It's a dream come true,'' Acosta said. ``And I hope that the Cuban public feels the same way.''

Roberto Marquez, a 29-year-old Royal Ballet dancer from Brazil, said of Alonso: ``Ever since I was little, I watched her dance on video, and her dancing inspired me.''

Cuba's state-run news agency, Prensa Latina, praised Tuesday's debut and even mentioned Acosta by name, treatment rarely given Cuban athletes and performers who leave the island.

After three nights at the Gran Teatro, the Royal Ballet's performances will shift to the larger Carlos Marx Theater in Havana's Miramar neighborhood.

FILM FEST OPENS

WITH DARWIN TALE

Real-life couple Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany will kick off the Toronto International Film Festival with the life story of Charles Darwin.

Bettany stars as the theory-of-evolution pioneer and Connelly plays his wife in Creation, which opens the festival Sept. 10. The film is directed by Jon Amiel, whose credits include The Core and Entrapment.

The Toronto event is among a flurry of film showcases, including the Venice and Telluride festivals, that help launch Hollywood's awards season each year.

The Toronto lineup will also feature Jane Campion's Bright Star, a drama about another 19th-century Brit, John Keats. The film, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, traces the love story of the doomed poet ( Ben Whishaw) and a passionate neighbor ( Abbie Cornish).

Other films announced by festival organizers include Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh's whistle-blower saga The Informant and Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner and Tina Fey's fantasy comedy The Invention of Lying. Creation premieres in the year marking the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. Adapted from the book Annie's Box, it centers on Darwin's struggle between science and God as he refines his theories amid his wife's deep religious conviction and grief over the death of his young daughter.

'BRÜNO' BANNED

Ukraine's Culture Ministry says it has banned Sacha Baron Cohen's new hit movie Brüno because it is immoral.

The movie is centered around the adventures of a flamboyant gay fashion journalist from Austria.

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