// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
The childhood promise that brought professional ballet to a post-industrial town
Newport-based Ballet Cymru has been running for the past 40 years
Darius James remembers sitting before Gwent County Council at 10 years old and being asked the question: "Why should we give you money?"
He had earned a place at the Royal Ballet School, but his parents could not afford the school fees.
In response, he told the council he would go away and develop his skills and use them to help his community in Newport.
As James' Newport-based dance company Ballet Cymru marks its 40th anniversary, he hopes he has fulfilled that promise.
Growing up in Newport in the 1970s, James said it was "really, really unusual" for a boy to be doing ballet and that he was grateful for the support of his parents.
He said his father, a keen footballer who spent his life working at the Alcan aluminium factory in Newport, particularly embraced something that was so new to him.
"He didn't really understand at the beginning, but he loved it. And we work with a lot of young people now whose parents are not quite as understanding, even 40 years later, which is a bit depressing."
Darius James was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2019 for his services to ballet and community dance
After years of training at the Royal Ballet School and dancing professionally, James returned to Newport and founded Ballet Cymru, originally called Gwent Ballet Theatre, in 1986.