Cuban danseur and choreographer Carlos Acosta was bestowed with the 2011 National Performing Arts Award, which he devoted to Fernando, Alberto and Alicia Alonso, founders of the National Ballet of Cuba that trained him as a ballet dancer.

“I owe them what I am,” he said at Havana’s Garcia Lorca Grand Theatre to a standing ovation. He also devoted the award to his family, especially to his father, who introduced him to ballet and thought him the value of humbleness, and to all the teachers along his career. Acosta described danseurs Jorge Esquivel, Lazaro Carreno and Andres Williams, “the Prince of Princesses”, as his guides and early day inspiration.

Carlos Acosta, 38, has become the youngest ballet dancer in Cuba to be honored with the prestigious award of the Council of the National Performing Arts for its contribution to dance and ballet.

“He is a genuine product of the Revolution,” said choreographer and the Jury President Ivan Tonorio when he announced the verdict last April.