Charlize Theron has launched a dance studio in Los Angeles.

The 48-year-old Hollywood actress has been busy working on her new venture - a studio called The Six Compound for dancers aged eight to 18 - three decades after an injury forced her to give up her dream of becoming a ballerina and pursue a career in the movie industry instead.

In a post on Instagram, Charlize shared her big new with fans, writing: "I’ve been a bit MIA lately, but I have a good excuse I swear. It’s because … I started a dance studio!

"Alongside my co-creators and incomparable icons Latrina Bolger-Washington and Tyrell Washington, we created The Six Compound!"

She added of the initiative: "[It's] a place with a fresh perspective to the evolution and future of dance AND performance. A place where dancers/performers can express themselves in an inclusive and innovative space alongside the best teachers and choreographers in the business right now."

The first classes launch at the studio in Burbank this week with the actress revealing kids can sign up for two days of "training, insight into the entertainment world and Q As with top leading professionals".

Charlize trained as a dancer as a child and later moved to New York to model while also attending the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School before a knee injury ended her plan of becoming a professional dancer.

In 2008, she told the New York Times newspaper: "Even though I was modelling, I always thought of myself as a dancer. I had the capability to be a bigger model than I was. They were always telling me: 'Lose five pounds and you'll be a supermodel'.

"But I saw modelling like waitressing - it was a way to pay for another career, and that career was dance."

She explained a knee injury left her sidelined and her mum convinced her to take a new path which led her to Hollywood. Charlize added to the publication: "I realised I couldn't dance anymore, and I went into a major depression. My mom came over from South Africa and said, 'Either you figure out what to do next or you come home, because you can sulk in South Africa'."