Some of the world's best dancers are working at Wales' only ballet company - and it is based in Newport

But you would be wrong.

Located in Rogerstone, opposite the Brace’s bakery factory, is the award-winning Ballet Cymru – the Welsh ballet company which was started 30 years ago by a Newport man.

Darius James, artistic director of the company, “did a Billy Elliot” and went from Glasllwch Primary School to the Royal Ballet School after auditioning.

“I played football and rugby and went to ballet as well,” he told the Argus when we met him at the ballet studio – quiet with concentration as the dancers rehearsed on Thursday.

“I was a dancer and I never worked in Wales because there weren’t any jobs. So I started it 30 years ago, when I had hair.

“But now we are creating these jobs.”

The dance company went a long time without any funding at all but then received money from the Arts Council of England and then was picked up by the Arts Council of Wales.

In February this year it was announced Ballet Cymru was one of only two organisations – along with orchestra Sinfonia Cymru – to see their funding from the Arts Council of Wales increase.

The ballet company employs 10 professional dancers for around 32 weeks a year, choosing the best from around 400 CVs which are sent in from all over the world.

Mr James said he can only employ dancers with European passports – and is uncertain what might happen now post-Brexit.

The current 10 hail from Italy, Portugal, Spain and Australia – as well as closer to home from Burton-on-Trent, the Wirral and Cardiff.

A big thing for Mr James, however, is making a difference to Newport – where he was born and has continued to live.

“Being from Newport, I want to make a difference here.

“We do tons of outreach stuff. There’s very little arts activity in Newport but we have got the Riverfront, for example, which we do a lot of workshops with.

“We have three satellite schools – Mount Pleasant, High Cross and Rogerstone which we do work with. We also work with the Serennu Children’s Centre.”

He said often people have a stereotypical image of ballet – which he wants to change.

“I think ballet has this image of anorexic little girls and pooffy guys. But we’re doing everything we can do to break down those stereotypes. We’ve worked with disabled dancers, for example.”

Does he think it is working?

“The children in the primary schools are great," he added. "The secondary schools we have got to be more careful.

“When we went into secondary schools we used to black out the side of the van where it said ballet, and then did half of the session before telling them we were a ballet company. "And then they were like, cool.

“The whole ballet world is considered of being elitist. But once they get to know us and get to see ballet is just a technique of dance their opinions change.

“And the children are great advocates, telling their parents and friends and then we can get people on our scholarship programme that way once they see how rewarding and important ballet is to their children.”

He added: “We are putting Newport on the map. These are some of the best dancers in the world and the fact they have chosen here is brilliant.

“They come from all over the world to work in Newport. And we want to inspire people locally to take up that mantle and start ballet.”

For the professional dancers themselves, the job is challenging but one they couldn’t do if the passion was not there.

Gwenllian Davies, from Cardiff, talked through her day. “We usually start at about 9.30am but we usually get in before to warm up,” she said.

“We do improvisation too, which is moving different parts of the body and finding new ways of moving.

“Then usually we have a rehearsal which is usually about one and a half to two hours. We have a lunch break and then go on in the afternoon.”

Miss Davies started dancing when she was four before being accepted to ballet school.

She said the productions at Ballet Cymru are different to other companies’ performances.

“The productions we do they are less focussing on pure ballet technique and more about telling a story. It’s so much fun to watch. It’s more about the characters and storytelling.”

Fellow dancer Miguel Fernandes, from Portugal, agrees. “We don’t just do typical classic ballet, we are trying to be contemporary and make it a lot more interesting,” he said.

“That’s why I chose to come here. When it comes to choreography and everything it give you freedom to achieve different movements – there’s not a lot of places which do that to be honest.”

Mr Fernandes, who is in his first season at Ballet Cymru, said when he joined the dancers who were already there made him feel welcome and the group are very close.

“It’s nice as we’re not a really big group,” he said. “We’re 10 dancers. It’s really nice in the way the directors can really focus on us and give us proper attention and corrections.

“The director can go really deep into what he wants us to achieve.”

Mr Fernandes’ story is rather surprising, after not really attending ballet classes when he was young.

“I did some parts of ballet at school. But my mum saw that I enjoyed movement and I was always active. She asked me if I would like to audition for the national ballet school, and I did and I got accepted.

“I started professionally when I was 10 years old.”

Is it a challenging job? “To be honest it’s not a job you can conquer much with laziness,” he said.

“Sometimes you may not feel like coming to class because you are too tired. But you still need to come here and do two hours of a proper class so you can improve so that you ready for performances.”

The company tours around the UK and are currently preparing for their next big performance at the Eisteddfod in Abergavenny on Tuesday, August 2.

They are the first ballet company ever to perform at the Eisteddfod and have created a piece called Serenestial with harpist Catrin Finch.

The company loves to collaborate – Cerys Matthews is their patron – and their Eisteddfod performance will see them working with Elin Manahan-Thomas, featuring new poems by Eurig Salisbury.

Later in the year they will begin their tour of Roald Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, finishing on December 4 at the Wales Millennium Centre and featuring the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

They will also be touring Wales with their award-winning production of Romeo a Juliet, which “pushes the dancers to their limits”.

It is a no brainer that Newport is incredibly lucky to have a world-class ballet school on its doorstep, helping to raise the profile of ballet and inspire young children – through their outreach work and summer school.

As Mr James said: “We are a Newport success story and I’m proud of it.”