Interview: Carlos Acosta on his special project at The Royal Opera House this summer

Former Royal Ballet principal Carlos Acosta returns to The Royal Opera House this summer in a mixed bill called Myths and Modern Masters, which sees him dancing Othello for the first time in José Limón’s The Moor’s Pavane.

He will be sharing the stage with dancers from the Birmingham Royal Ballet and his Cuban company, Acosta Danza, in a programme that includes classics and contemporary dance this August.

The performances feature Acosta in a range of pieces, including The Moor’s Pavane, his own work Nutcracker in Havana, Christopher Bruce’s Rooster and a contemporary duet Nosotros. And performing them at Covent Garden means a great deal to the dancer.

Diane Parkes spoke with him about the project.

“The Royal Opera House was my home for 17 years, and it’s always very special for me,” Acosta says. “It is an emotional experience to have the chance to return to that space which gave me so many wonderful memories.

“Even when I go to the dressing rooms, just walking around those corridors as a dancer is very special, and I am so grateful to experience how it feels to be a dancer in that space again.”

Cuban-born Acosta, who reached international stardom with The Royal Ballet dancing in works such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Coppélia, Carmen, La Fille mal gardée, Song of the Earth and Apollo, retired from the Company in 2015.

In the same year, he founded Havana-based Acosta Danza, and in 2020, he also took over as Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB).

Acosta returned to The Royal Opera House for performances to celebrate his 50th birthday three years ago and is looking forward to being back on its historic stage this summer, taking the role of Shakespeare’s tragic hero Othello.

“This opportunity is special for me because I’m going to be performing in José Limón’s The Moor’s Pavane. This was a favourite work of Rudolf Nureyev and one that he incorporated in his tours around the world very frequently, but I never had the chance to perform in it.

“The Moor’s Pavane gives me the opportunity to interpret Othello for the very first time in my career. And I’m going to be joined by three dancers from BRB – Beatrice Parma as Desdemona, Miki Mizutani as Emilia and Max Maslen as Iago.”

Set to music by Henry Purcell, Limón combined elements of the 16th-century court dance, the pavane, with his signature choreography to create a work that became a modern classic after its 1949 premiere.

“José Limón was a choreographer who developed his own technique; he was very prominent and important at the time,” Acosta explains. “He created a really striking piece of theatre with The Moor’s Pavane.

“It’s very theatrical but tells the plot that is featured in Othello in a very minimalistic way. Limón really brings everything to the bare minimum, and that is where the true magic lies. There are less distractions so all the focus is on the dance and the story.

“And for me as a dancer, I am trying to learn something new, trying to work my body in a new way and with a new language with this piece.”

The programme features the Suite from Acosta’s hugely popular Nutcracker in Havana, which brings together the story and music of Tchaikovsky’s classic with Cuban dance and rhythm and has toured the UK to critical and audience acclaim.

“I want to see how that production is onstage at the Royal Opera House,” he says. “It has this Cuban feel, so for example, in the middle of the dance, it breaks into a conga, and so it will be a bit of fun.

“Beatrice Parma and Enrique Bejarano from BRB will be performing the main pas de deux in the second act, and dancers from Acosta Danza are also performing in this work. I will be performing the Drosselmeyer character, so I am looking forward to that.”

Myths and Modern Masters also features Agrippina Vaganova’s Diana and Actaeon, which will be performed by Birmingham Royal Ballet soloist Yasiel Hodelín Bello and first soloist Katherine Ochoa.

“This is the fireworks element for the audiences who like their classical dance,” Acosta says. “Diana and Actaeon was a regular in my repertoire, and now we’ll see younger dancers taking it on. Yasiel and Katherine are amazing dancers, so I know the audiences are going to enjoy that.”

In terms of contemporary dance, the programme sees Acosta performing in Nosotros, created by Cuban dancers and choreographers Raúl Reinoso, who was a founder member of Acosta Danza, and Beatriz Garcia.

“Nosotros is an emotional piece; it is the conflict of a couple,” Acosta says. “Raúl and Beatriz created it on themselves and when I saw it I really liked it. For this presentation we will have the pianist and the cellist on stage.”

The finale sees Acosta in Christopher Bruce’s Rooster set to hit songs by The Rolling Stones, including Sympathy for the Devil, Ruby Tuesday, Paint it Black and Little Red Rooster.

“This piece is great fun and it has never been performed at the Royal Opera House so it will be interesting to see how it looks in that space. It’s very challenging for me as it’s very

fast-paced with a lot of energy and it is a really great way to finish the evening.” Acosta hopes the mix of modern and classical will appeal to a wide scope of audience.

“I always like to move the audience with programming choices,” he says. “My curation of Myths and Modern Masters has meant that I have been able to invite guest dancers from BRB, and it also allows me to showcase Acosta Danza company members on the Royal Opera House stage, but I also needed to throw myself into the equation in a significant way.”

And for Acosta, who founded Acosta Danza to give young people in his home country of Cuba the chance to learn dance and perform it worldwide, sharing the stage with members of the two companies he directs makes for a memorable occasion.

“It’s fantastic to be able to bring Acosta Danza and Birmingham Royal Ballet together. It is interesting to see dancers from both companies dancing and learning from each other; it’s very stimulating.

“Also, I want to use my position to always cast a light on new choreographers and new talent, to give them that spotlight as a way of saying ‘you should come and watch this talent perform’. This programme is an ideal opportunity to do this.”

Myths and Modern Masters will also be a chance to see how far Acosta Danza has come since its foundation just over a decade ago.

“All of the Acosta Danza dancers have now come via the Academy I founded, and so it is great to see them developing as human beings as well as dancers. I still have memories of when they came to audition aged 15, and now you see these beautiful adults who have been on such a journey.

“This is a show that is multi-layered. It is full of talent, with dancers and pieces some audience members may not have seen before. It has the wonderful Royal Ballet Sinfonia performing the music live. It has classical dance, which appeals to some audiences, and we have the Cuban element, which I hope will speak to maybe a younger and a Latin world audience.”

Carlos Acosta: Myths and Modern Masters
The Royal Opera House 5 – 9 August
https://www.rbo.org.uk/ for more information and tickets.

Gramilano Editor

Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.