Birmingham Royal Ballet director wants new dance centre to become world landmark

The director of Birmingham Royal Ballet also spearheads the prestigious Acosta Dance Foundation (ADF), which has launched its new global headquarters in Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.

The 50-year-old, a former Royal Ballet star, said he aims for the Acosta Dance Centre to become a "reference in dance worldwide" which will also bridge dance and community engagement gaps.

Cuban-born Acosta, who has done much work to make Birmingham Royal Ballet more accessible, said he wants to do the same in London.

He said: "I wanted to bring the centre here, in Woolwich, because there is a very high population of African descendancy.

"Some of the dances that we're going to be teaching is Afro-Cuban dance, Afro-Cuban beats, more popular dances that speak about Africa.

"So hopefully, one of the things that we're doing at the centre is to benefit the community so hopefully the locals can come and get involved."

Acosta said the aim of the centre is to create "an ecosystem" of dance because people in the community do not currently feel the space is a "place for them".

He said: "You will have the chance to take ballet classes, to take contemporary classes, Afro-Cuban, or more popular ways of dancing that is ingrained in the Cuban culture.

"As we start to get known, and also the centre starts to get busy, we want to expand into all the Latin forms of dances.

"So the idea is that this becomes a reference of dance. Dance is a way of bringing people together in a social way and also to establish a community.

"I think dance is very important, the whole world would be the saddest place if dance was not in it."

The new cultural hub has five studios which aim to bring together industry professionals and members of the community with dance-related interests in an artistic space.

Acosta added: "I think the ambition is that any other forms of dance that you can think of, you could come to this building and take classes.

"So we want to involve the community of Woolwich, because we're here and we want to work with them and also we want to make sure that they really take ownership of what we're trying to do.

"But obviously our vision is that this becomes a landmark... so that people from all over the world, they know that there is a centre in Woolwich they could come in and take classes and stay around as long as they want and they participate in many schemes that we're going to deliver."