Cuban-born ballet dancer Carlos Acosta made his first great move at 16—when he accompanied his dance teacher to Italy as part of an exchange program. The youngest of 11 children, Acosta had grown up poor in Havana's barrios and had first enrolled in dance school at 9 for the hot meals that students were served. In Europe, however, he feasted on competition, winning five international dance prizes in one year, including the coveted Absolut Grand Prix in Lausanne, Switzerland. A principal dancer with the Houston Ballet since 1993, Acosta has been dubbed "heir apparent to Baryshnikov" by New York Times dance doyenne Anna Kisselgoff
First person: "Three months before, I was in high school in Cuba, a nobody," he recalls, with a grin, of his 1990 Swiss triumph, "and suddenly, I'm having my picture made with Princess Caroline of Monaco."
Second opinion: "Baryshnikov had it, and Carlos is already getting it—that ability to make everything look easy," says Houston Ballet artistic director Ben Stevenson. "Suddenly, he's in the air, and you wonder how he got there."
Vitals: 5'11" tall, 170 lbs., African-Cuban heritage; maintains Cuban citizenship but lives in a modest, two-bedroom Houston condo. Girlfriend: California-born Tiekka Schofield, 26, a fellow dancer.
Nightmare: "Lifting my partner and dropping her, like on her face. Forget the career! I do thousands of push-ups to make them look light."
Secret passions: Movies—"Sometimes I see seven a week, even two a day"—and dancing the night away in salsa clubs. "I love salsa. It keeps me close to my roots."
Next up: Leading roles in upcoming Houston Ballet touring productions of Dracula and Don Quixote.
Indulgence: Splurged last year on a BMW 318 convertible—but felt uncomfortable driving a car that cost more than his family's Havana home. "So I traded it in for an older BMW 325i. That's much better."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
