After some initial backing from the Arts Council of Wales, he said Ballet Cymru went 13 years without any funding at all and 28 years without its own dedicated studio.
To help finance the company, James toured with other ballet troupes including Northern Ballet.
Amy Doughty, the company’s co-artistic director and James’ wife, joined Ballet Cymru as a dancer in 1996, and said they would rehearse wherever they could find space.
“We’d have to carry in all the ballet bars, all the equipment that we use, all the dance floors,” she said.
However, with National Lottery funding in 2014, the company was able to renovate a warehouse into its current studio.
It sits on the same industrial estate James’ father walked through to work each day.
In the early years, James also recalled he would cover the word “ballet” on the van they took to do community workshops because he feared it would put people off before trying.
Doughty believes attitudes have changed since then, adding: “I think we’ve worked really hard in Newport to go into schools, to do shows here, to really develop people who understand what we’re about.”