El debate por la restauracion de la Escuela Nacional de Arte

The domed roof of an old ballet school stands abandoned in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. Carlos Acosta, a 39-year-old celebrity ballet star from Cuba, pledges to raise millions of dollars to rescue the ruins of the architectural masterpiece that was abandoned in mid-construction five decades ago and turn it into an international center for culture and dance. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Havana –  In a country where money is perennially tight, it might seem a fantastic gift: A celebrity ballet star pledges to raise millions of dollars to rescue the ruins of an architectural masterpiece abandoned in mid-construction five decades ago in his native Cuba.

Instead, Carlos Acosta's plan to inject life into the island's hidebound ballet scene by refurbishing Havana's crumbling dance school and turning it into an international center for culture and dance has ignited controversy for daring to reimagine the original architect's vision.

Acosta, who was in Havana this past week for meetings with Culture Ministry officials and to raise awareness about the project, was visibly frustrated by the flap over what he views as a way to give something back as he prepares to retire from London's Royal Ballet after a celebrated career.

"I don't need flowers anymore. ... I came from nowhere and I have so much," Acosta, 39, told The Associated Press on the grounds of the ballet school Friday.

"What I can tell you right now is: I look at this building, it's nothing. It's been like that for decades, and one day it's going to collapse to the ground."

Set in a leafy district of western Havana, the school is an eye-popping labyrinth of wormlike corridors, graceful arches and majestic domes. It was designed by Italian architect Vittorio Garatti as one of five adjacent arts complexes personally requested by Fidel Castro, who dreamed of building the world's finest art school on the golf course of a country club seized by his revolution.

It's logical ... common sense. Someone has to pay for everything. And (the government) can't. They don't have the opportunity, otherwise they would be doing it themselves. So the money has to come from somewhere. - Carlos Acosta

Construction began in 1961, but as Cuba increasingly embraced Soviet-style communism and the functionality of Lego-like prefabricated architecture, the project was criticized as bourgeois and elitist. Work was abruptly halted in 1965, with the ballet school lacking only windows, doors and floors.

"That would have taken 15 days, because the material was all there," Garatti told the makers of the 2011 documentary "Unfinished Spaces." ''And then, well ..."

In the mid-1970s the main theater was repurposed as a circus school, but mostly it has been left alone amid hostile surroundings.

In 1999, Fidel Castro said he regretted that others had persuaded him to halt construction and vowed that the five art schools would rise from the ruins. But funds fell short after the campuses for painting and sculpture and for modern dance were completed, and the schools for ballet, drama and music were in limbo once again.

Today, weeds and small trees sprout from the ballet school's brick rooftops. During severe storms a nearby creek jumps its banks and cascades through the cave-like halls, caking them with mud. Food wrappers and cigarette butts litter a bathroom with no fixtures, most of the tile stripped from the walls. "I love you, Angel," reads a graffito scrawled on a high wall.

Enter Acosta, who enlisted British architect Norman Foster to help raise money from private donors for the project. A benefit last month yielded some $320,000 in pledges and enough promising leads that Acosta's people feel confident they can hit their $10 million target.

But the involvement of Foster, whose renown and ties to the global financial world are a huge boon for fundraising, has alarmed some people who fear Garatti's original design could be overwhelmed. Foster is famous for his expressive glass-and-steel re-imaginings of historic structures like the dome of Berlin's parliament building and the courtyard of the British Museum.

Garatti, who did not respond to an AP email seeking comment, reportedly wrote a letter to Fidel and Raul Castro complaining that the international project risked "privatizing" the school in a society where for 50 years the state has been the dominant patron of the arts.

Garatti has defenders in Havana's cultural and architectural community who debated the plan in public forums and private email chains.

"I would be very happy if there were a work by Foster here in Havana, but not sitting on top of the work by Vittorio," prominent Cuban architect Mario Coyula said at a July meeting called to discuss the controversy.

"There is also talk of a new building, but there is no image of that. The main worry is an ethical problem, which is, to be clear: Is Foster going to take over the project, or will it continue to be Garatti's?" Coyula added, according to minutes of the gathering that were published by the Cuban cultural magazine La Jiribilla.

Coyula called for a definitive plan to be made public so people can judge the project on its merits rather than on rumor. At the same time, though, he urged Garatti to recognize that 50 years have passed and some change is inevitable.

In town for the Havana Ballet Festival, Acosta seemed to be on a kind of hybrid damage-control and publicity junket, meeting with officials as well as local and international media to drum up interest.

He emphasized that he and Foster are committed to remaining faithful to Garatti's design, and said the center will support an estimated 80 to 100 jobs even after construction finishes. The master plan has not been finalized, but Acosta said the modifications it envisions are minor ones like repurposing classrooms as student dorms and expanding the main theater's capacity from 200 to 540.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/11/03/rehabbing-cuban-landmark-draws-debate-in-cash-strapped-country/#ixzz2BBtrvaOv