Will Carlos Acosta Get to the Pointe

Published: March 8, 2014, 7:06 p.m.

b'

A decision by his father to send him to ballet school changed the direction of Carlos Acosta\\u2019s life. Thanks to Fidel Castro\\u2019s belief that art should be accessible to all Cubans he received free ballet tuition. It shaped his character, and secured his future. Now he wants to give something back to his country by saving an abandoned ballet school in Havana. Vittorio Garatti\\u2019s School of Ballet is an extraordinary labyrinth of corridors, graceful arches and majestic brick and terracotta domes, and has been described as one of the most remarkable buildings of the 20th Century. But the ballet star\\u2019s attempts to restore the building have stirred Latin passions and protest.

'