Artists, athletes cling to their dreams on Havana's rooftops

These are hot, humid days in Havana. When the afternoon breeze sweeps in off the sea, William Roblejo steps onto the roof of his building, draws his bow across the strings of his violin, and runs through his repertoire of music to soothe an anxious city.

Access to a rooftop and a breeze is a coveted luxury in the Cuban capital, areas of which have been in lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic for several weeks.

On other Havana rooftops, the country's top ballet dancer rolls out a mat and runs through his positions and pirouettes, an Olympic pentathlete lunges at an imaginary rival with an epee, and a Greco-Roman wrestling champion pumps iron.

Cuba has imposed lockdowns only in certain barrios, but the government has called on people to stay home as the number of confirmed infections climbed above 1,500 this week with 64 deaths.

With temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, water shortages in some areas of the capital and long lines at food stores, Cubans have grown more anxious under weeks of confinement.

Adrian Sanchez, first soloist at the National Ballet of Cuba, fears above all that his muscles and his posture, used to a daily nine-hour training regime, will atrophy.

"When all this is over we have to return to the ballet, and if we come back untrained, that will be very hard," said Sanchez, 22.

He practices "two or three hours" a day on the roof of his building, reached through a skylight and overlooking the iconic Revolution Square.

"That way the time goes by faster, and I don't feel I'm being locked up so long," he says.

Like everyone else, a good part of his day is spent queueing up for food.

- Making do -
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- A little gratitude -
====================== Roblejo, the musician, is at times frustrated by not having his usual concert audience because "musicians are used to delivering art live."
In many ways, he admits to being "very happy. I've been locked up and playing alone at home for 20 or 25 days now."