My parents did a weekend getaway to Cuba the year before the revolution. They didn't tell us where they were until they got back. With no cell phones you couldn't track them. They loved it. It was one of their secret memories.
I wonder a bit about art and art organizations in nation states that are run by a dictator. Obviously it is in PR interest of the state to have some top flight organization that they can put on the world's stage and everyone go "wow". But this is art that is collective (not one dancer but the whole troop) so it is well past the "occasional savant" but an organized thing. We do as well here in the US with our American Ballet and NYC Ballet and a host of other top tier city organizations but they always seem to be having financial issues - Miami had to let some of its corpse go due to budget cuts just last year. State support provides a certain level of security perhaps.
It is a fine line between the intolerable and the sublime.