No Way Home: A Dancer's Journey from the Streets of Havana to the Stages of the World

A former principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre and now a guest artist and choreographer, 34-year-old Acosta renders a deeply moving account of his leap from deep poverty in a suburban Havana hovel to international dance stardom. He was the son of a white mother and a black father 30 years her senior with eight children from several previous marriages. Obsessed with soccer and break dancing, young Acosta wanted no part of ballet when his father enrolled him in an arts school at the age of nine to keep him away from street gangs. Although extremely gifted, Acosta was frequently truant because of a grueling commute, feelings of inferiority about his poverty and the chaos of his home life. But, as he relates, winning the prestigious Prix de Lausanne catapulted him onto the international ballet scene, with triumphal stints with the English National Ballet, the Houston Ballet and the Royal Ballet; the memoir ends in 2003 with the London debut of his own ballet based on his childhood. An eloquent portrait of an artist as well as a tribute to the flawed but committed parents who wanted a better life for him. 8 pages of b&w photos. (May)