One of the world’s top ballet dancers, Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta, said he would like to open a dance company in Cuba after retiring from The Royal Ballet of London.
Acosta, who is retiring from classical dance after the 2015-2016 season, told Cuba’s newspaper Granma that he would like to form a small company along neoclassical and contemporary lines.
According to the theguardian.com, Acosta, 36, started his dancing career with the Cuban company and became the darling of the Royal Ballet when he joined as principal artist in 2007. He hasn’t stopped delighting audiences since being known for his strong lines, raw quality and huge leaps.
The 41-year-old ballet star was one of 11 children born to a poor Havana family. He studied with the National Ballet of Cuba, joined London’s Royal Ballet in 1998 and has been a principal guest artist since 2003.
Acosta, who is considered the world’s leading male ballet star, was also quoted in a British newspaper, (http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Arts/article1062588.ece), as saying “that he is quitting London to build an arts center in his home town of Havana.”
“I see myself going back not just because it is where I was born but because the country is going in the right direction,” said Acosta, 39, who became a father for the first time at the start of the year. “The changes of the past two or three years are positive, in particular the incentive to create more of a market economy.”