The childhood promise that brought professional ballet to a post-industrial town

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."

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.

He said the idea to start a ballet company in a post-industrial town was "totally crazy, but totally needed and logical".

"There is so much talent in Newport, so many brilliant, brilliant young people, and there's not the outlets you have in London or Cardiff."

After some initial backing from the Arts Council of Wales, he said Ballet Cymru went 13 years without any funding at all and 28 years without its own dedicated studio.

To help finance the company, James toured with other ballet troupes including Northern Ballet.

Amy Doughty, the company's co-artistic director and James' wife, joined Ballet Cymru as a dancer in 1996, and said they would rehearse wherever they could find space.

"We'd have to carry in all the ballet bars, all the equipment that we use, all the dance floors," she said.

However, with National Lottery funding in 2014, the company was able to renovate a warehouse into its current studio.

It sits on the same industrial estate James' father walked through to work each day.

In the early years, James said he would cover the word "ballet" on the van they took to do community workshops because he feared it would put people off before trying.

Doughty believes attitudes have changed since then, adding: "I think we've worked really hard in Newport to go into schools, to do shows here, to really develop people who understand what we're about."

However, James believes some barriers to participation in dance remain.

The directors identified seven boys through the company's Duets scheme who they believed showed talent, only to face reluctance from some parents.

"The dads will come in and say my son doesn't dance, he doesn't want to do ballet," Doughty said.

But the pair said the children had "absolutely loved it".

Established in 2012, the scheme runs workshops in Welsh schools where the company identifies children it believes have natural ability in dance but are not in any formal training.

Ballet Cymru then provides them with two years of free tuition. For Doughty, the financial aspect is particularly important.

She grew up in Australia as one of four children and said without scholarships, she would not have enjoyed the same career in dance.

Doughty feels that not being familiar with ballet can stop people from engaging with the art form.

"The reality is, we've got to take it to them. They're not going to seek us out, why would they?"

She said one way they try to do this is by giving free show tickets to children participating in the Duets programme and their families.

For some, she said, it can be their first time seeing live ballet.

Ballet Cymru marked its anniversary with shows at the Riverfront theatre in Newport on Thursday and Friday, before a tour to Leeds and Bangor.

Doughty said her hope was that she and James had built something that would last and grow beyond them.

Looking back at the council's decision to support him, James said: "They believed in me.

"If in the last 40 years we've reached one kid and inspired them to be better than they would have been otherwise, then surely that's worth it.

"I'm sure it's more, but just one would be worth it."