Cultural Life: Carlos Acosta, dancer

Books

I'm reading Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. I can see why it's considered to be such a masterpiece. Lee has such an inventive way of writing and the characters emerge very quickly right from the start. I'll be sorry to finish it.

Theatre

I saw 'Brief Encounter' quite recently at the Cinema Haymarket. It was well put together and the simultaneous film screening transported the audience very effectively to the Thirties. The multi-talented cast was as capable of playing music as acting, which was impressive and inspiring.

Visual arts

I went to Tate Britain's Francis Bacon exhibition, which was impressive but pretty disturbing. Bacon's paintings are not the easiest to look at, but then that can also be the sign of a great artist – art doesn't always have to be beautiful or romantic.

Music

The last concert I went to was Stevie Wonder. Once you've seen that kind of artist and that kind of performance, everything else seems hollow.

Carlos Acosta is an ambassador for Ctrl.Alt.Shift, a user-generated creative-arts initiative raising awareness among young people about HIV/AIDS, with a performance at the Peacock Theatre, London W2 on Saturday 22 November at 7.30pm (0844 412 4322)