No Way Home - A Cuban Dancer's Story

Author Carlos Acosta
The story of one of the world’s greatest dancers, from his childhood spent in the backstreets of Havana to his time as a principal dancer for the most prestigious companies in the world. He may make ballet look effortless, but the grace, strength and charm he shows on stage is the result of hundreds of stories in an amazing life
Publisher: Harper Press | ISBN no: | Year: 2007

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For anyone who has seen Carlos Acosta in action, you don’t need to love ballet to be mesmerised by his charismatic presence and gravity defying leaps carried out with a sensual grace. From rebellious teenager in Havana to the first ever, black principal dancer with the Royal Ballet here, he has a history of defying the usual rules; and this autobiography does that too. It is a well written, sometimes funny and often heart-wrenching, read of Acosta’s life so far, but at the same time a fascinating and evocative portrait of Cuba. He received Carlos from his white Spanish maternal grandfather, who identified himself with the cause of the Cuban poor from arrival in the 1920s, and he received Acosta from his paternal grandfather whose mother was the daughter of sugar plantation slaves in Pinar del Río. Originally obsessed with football, when his dream of becoming the future Pelé crumbled he was drawn to break-dancing. He says “that was when I found my shyness fell away and felt the desire to shout my existence to the world”. Having been captured by ballet in his youth when he sneaked into a whites-only cinema pre-1959 and glimpsed it for the first time on screen, Carlos’s father Pedro signs Carlos up for ballet school at the age of 9 in an attempt to keep him out of trouble.  Despite their stormy relationship, Carlos dedicates the book to his father and declares the opening night of his Tocororo show at Sadlers Wells with his family in the audience as “the happiest night of my life”. His huge capacity for love of his family and friends and eventually ballet has sustained him despite so much emotional and physical pain in his life and in pursuit of his art.