Carlos Acosta | |
---|---|
Born | Havana, Cuba | 2 June 1973
Citizenship | Cuban (by birthplace), British[ when? ][ citation needed ] |
Education | Cuban National Ballet School |
Occupation | Ballet dancer |
Career | |
Current group | The Royal Ballet, Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet |
Former groups | English National Ballet National Ballet of Cuba Houston Ballet |
Carlos Yunior Acosta Quesada CBE (born 2 June 1973) is a Cuban-British ballet director and retired dancer who is director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. He danced with many companies, including the English National Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba, Houston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. He was a permanent member of The Royal Ballet from 1998 to 2015. In 2003, he was promoted to principal guest artist, a rank that reduced his commitment, enabling him to concentrate on a growing schedule of international guest appearances and tours. He celebrated his farewell after 17 years at The Royal Ballet, dancing his last performance in November 2015 in Carmen , which he both choreographed and starred in. [1]
In January 2020, Acosta was appointed as director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, succeeding David Bintley. In February, he announced the plans for his inaugural season, including a "Curated by Carlos" festival, and special performances with Alessandra Ferri. [2]
Acosta was born in Havana, Cuba, on 2 June 1973, the 11th and last child in an impoverished family. His father, Pedro Acosta, was a truck driver, and his mother, Dulce Maria Quesada, often suffered from health problems. Acosta grew up with no toys, sometimes went shoeless, and did not even have a birthday cake until he turned 23. The streets of his neighbourhood provided plenty of entertainment, however, and he spent his time playing football, break-dancing, and raiding nearby mango groves with his friends. He was an over-energetic child, and his father felt that his youngest son would soon land in serious trouble. Dance training at one of the state-funded schools, his father decided, would teach the boy discipline and provide him with a free lunch every day. He studied ballet at the Cuban National Ballet School with many influential teachers, including Ramona de Sáa. In June 1991 he received his diploma with maximum qualifications and a gold medal.
Acosta, of mixed Spanish and African heritage, came to prominence in the early 1990s while still in his teens, and North American and European dance companies began offering him lead romantic roles over the next decade. After approximately five years in Houston, Acosta joined London's Royal Ballet in 1998. With his fabled grace and athleticism, he has earned comparisons to Mikhail Baryshnikov or Rudolf Nureyev. A writer for London's Independent newspaper described Acosta as "a dancer who slashes across space faster than anyone else, who lacerates the air with shapes so clear and sharp they seem to throw off sparks". [3]
From 1989 to 1991, Acosta performed throughout the world, guesting with many companies, including the Compagnia Teatro Nuovo di Torino in Italy, where he danced alongside Luciana Savignano, and the Teatro Teresa Carreño in Venezuela.
At the invitation of Ivan Nagy, Acosta danced with the English National Ballet in London during the 1991/92 season. He made his debut in the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor and also appeared in Cinderella , partnering Eva Evdokimova and Ludmila Semenyaka, Le Spectre de la Rose , Les Sylphides and as the Prince in Ben Stevenson's The Nutcracker .
In 1992 and 1993, Acosta was a member of the National Ballet of Cuba under the artistic director Alicia Alonso, rising to principal dancer in 1994. In October 1993 and September 1994 he toured with the company to Madrid, where he danced various roles including Albrecht in Giselle , Basilio in Don Quixote and Siegfried in Swan Lake .
In November 1993, he was invited by Ben Stevenson, the artistic director of Houston Ballet, to join the company as a principal dancer, and Acosta made his American stage debut as the Prince in The Nutcracker . Following this, his repertory included:
In 1997, he created the role of Frederick in Stevenson's Dracula and in 1998 he added the role of Misgir in the première of Stevenson's ballet The Snow Maiden, partnering Nina Ananiashvili.
In 1998, Acosta joined The Royal Ballet, London, under the direction of Anthony Dowell. His roles with the company have included:
In the 1999/2000 season, he performed:
During the 2001/2 season, he made his debut as Basilio in Nureyev's Don Quixote , and in the 2002/2003 season he made his debut as the title role in George Balanchine's Apollo . He has created roles in Ashley Page's Hidden Variables and William Tuckett's 3:4.
Acosta was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to ballet. [7]
Acosta was a guest artist with the American Ballet Theatre during the company's Metropolitan Opera House season in the summer of 2002, when he performed Prince Désiré in Sleeping Beauty Act III, Oberon in The Dream , Colas in La Fille mal gardée and Conrad in Le Corsaire . He rejoined the ABT (under artistic director Kevin McKenzie) as Principal Dancer, for the company's 2003 autumn season at New York City Center, to perform in the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and a new staging of Raymonda (Grand Pas Classique).
He has performed Basilio in Nureyev's version of Don Quixote , as well as Solor in Nureyev's La Bayadère , with the Paris Opera Ballet.
In recent years, Acosta has had a career as an international guest artist, appearing in the US, Russia, the Netherlands, Chile, Argentina, Greece, Japan, Italy, Germany and France. In June 2008 he guested for the first time with the Australian Ballet, in Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun , partnered by AB principal Kirsty Martin.
In January 2020, Carlos Acosta was appointed as Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, succeeding David Bintley. In February, he announced the plans for his inaugural season, including a "Curated by Carlos" festival, and special performances with renowned ballet dancer Alessandra Ferri.
In February, Acosta announced the plans for his inaugural 2020-2021 season. Plans included the three-week "Curated by Carlos" summer festival, which included the world premiere of Chacona, a new duet for Acosta and ballet dancer Alessandra Ferri, by Acosta Danza’s Goyo Montero.
Birmingham Royal Ballet was also scheduled to perform Carlos Acosta's Don Quixote at the Birmingham International Dance Festival in June 2020, though this was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [8]
In February 2021, Acosta and the BRB premiered their first digital commission, a film titled "Empty Stage," scored by a song of the same name written and performed by American songwriter Benjamin Scheuer, who was accompanied by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia orchestra. The film was called "dazzling...a dance-lover's dream" by the Huffington Post. [9]
In 1997, CBS News filmed Acosta for a special report for their programme 60 Minutes (broadcast in January 1998), following him during his performances for the Houston Ballet and relaxing with friends and family in Cuba.
His television performances include two live BBC broadcasts from The Royal Opera House: the Opening Celebration in December 1999 when Acosta performed the Man's Solo in Le Corsaire , and in February 2000 the role of Franz in Ninette de Valois' Coppélia . Most recently Acosta was featured in "The Reluctant Ballet Dancer", a programme in the Imagine series shown on BBC1 on 9 July 2003 and presented by Alan Yentob. Acosta was also interviewed for the BBC's HARDtalk programme that was broadcast on Christmas Day 2003. In 2006, he was filmed in the BBC studios performing a dance from Tocororo, which was broadcast on the Newsnight programme.
On 5 February 2004, the world première of Dance Cuba: Dreams of Flight, a film by Cynthia Newport featuring Acosta and other former members of the National Ballet of Cuba, took place at the Miami International Film Festival.
Acosta also appeared as a main character in the Natalie Portman-directed segment of New York, I Love You .
Acosta's life story is told in the 2018 film Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story , in part of which he plays his adult self; he was nominated for the Goya Award for Best New Actor for his work. [10]
Tocororo is Acosta's own ballet and has been touring theatres worldwide to high acclaim.[ citation needed ]
Tocororo is the story of a young Cuban boy who leaves his family and home in the Cuban countryside to find a new life in a city. It is loosely based on Acosta's own life experiences. [11] It is set to original music by Miguel Nuñez, which blends popular and symphonic Cuban styles and is performed live on stage by a group of five Cuban musicians.
Acosta chose the 17-strong company from dancers in Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, the Cuban National Ballet and Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba. The "young protagonist" is played by Yonah Acosta, Acosta's younger nephew, and for six performances the central role was played by José Oduardo Perez.
Acosta is married to the English writer and former model Charlotte Holland, and they have three children. [12] [13] [14]
His nephew Yonah Acosta is a dancer and actor. [15]
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the greatest male ballet dancer of his generation.
The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois. It became the resident ballet company of the Royal Opera House in 1946, and has purpose-built facilities within these premises. It was granted a royal charter in 1956, becoming recognised as Britain's flagship ballet company.
Ethan Stiefel is an American dancer, choreographer, and director. He was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) from 1997 until July 2012. He was the artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet from 2011 to 2014. His wife is Gillian Murphy, also a principal dancer with ABT.
José Manuel Carreño is a retired Cuban ballet dancer, who performed as a principal dancer with the English National Ballet, Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.
Sylvie Guillem is a French ballet dancer. Guillem was the top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet from 1984 to 1989, before becoming a principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. She has performed contemporary dance as an Associate Artist of London's Sadler's Wells Theatre. Her most notable performances have included those in Giselle and in Rudolf Nureyev's stagings of Swan Lake and Don Quixote. In November 2014, she announced her retirement from the stage in 2015.
Marianela Núñez is an Argentine-British ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet, London.
Don Quixote is a ballet in three acts, based on episodes taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and first presented by Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet on 26 December [O.S. 14 December] 1869. Petipa and Minkus revised the ballet into a more elaborate and expansive version in five acts and eleven scenes for the Mariinsky Ballet, first presented on 21 November [O.S. 9 November] 1871 at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of St. Petersburg.
Élisabeth Platel is a French prima ballerina.
Maria Olegovna Kochetkova is a Russian ballet dancer. She was a principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet between 2007 and 2018, and with the American Ballet Theatre between 2015 and 2017. After that, she became a freelance dancer for several years, before joining the Finnish National Ballet in the 2020/21 season.
David Makhateli is a Georgian retired ballet dancer. He was a Principal Dancer of the Royal Ballet in London, England. David Makhateli is a founding director of D&D Art Productions and Grand Audition as well as internationally acclaimed and demanded guest teacher for the Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Paris Opera, Finnish National Ballet, Swedish Royal Ballet.
Yury Yanowsky is a French-born Spanish ballet dancer and choreographer. He was a principal dancer with the Boston Ballet.
César Morales Anderson is a Chilean ballet dancer who, as of February 2014, is a principal dancer with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Born in Rancagua, Chile, César Morales began dancing at the age of eleven at the Ballet School of the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, where he trained for three years before being offered a scholarship by Ben Stevenson to train at the academy of Houston Ballet. He returned to Santiago at the age of fifteen to complete his training and Ivan Nagy offered him a contract to join the Ballet de Santiago. After a year in the Corps de Ballet, he was promoted to soloist and a year later to principal dancer immediately after his first performance of Swan Lake. Morales danced with the Ballet de Santiago until 2003, when he moved to Paris to work as a freelance guest artist, dancing in Paris, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. He went on to join the English National Ballet in 2004, was Principal Guest Artist with Vienna Staatsoper in 2006 and then joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2008.
Vadim Muntagirov is a Russian ballet dancer. He is currently a principal dancer at The Royal Ballet in London and previously a lead principal dancer at the English National Ballet.
Manuel Legris is a French ballet dancer. He was an étoile with the Paris Opera Ballet for 23 years. On September 1, 2010, he became the director of the Vienna State Ballet. In December 2020, he was appointed artistic director of the La Scala Theatre Ballet.
Aaron Robison is a British ballet dancer and currently a Principal Dancer with San Francisco Ballet. He was previously a Lead principal dancer with English National Ballet.
Isaac Eleazar Hernández Fernández is a Mexican ballet dancer and actor who is a lead principal with the English National Ballet.
Olga Esina is a Russian ballerina who was educated at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2010, she became a First Solo Dancer at the Vienna State Ballet.
Yosvani Ramos is a Cuban ballet dancer. He danced with the English National Ballet for nine years, five as a principal dancer, before joining The Australian Ballet as a principal artist in January 2008, leaving in 2013 and dancing with Cincinnati Ballet as a principal dancer for one season. He then joined Colorado Ballet in Denver as a principal dancer, and retired in April 2023. He has been named artistic director of Ballet de Monterrey in Mexico from January 2024.
Vladimir Shklyarov is a principal dancer of Mariinsky Ballet and a guest principal with the Bayerische Staatsballett and The Royal Ballet.
Marcelino Sambé is a Portuguese ballet dancer. He is a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet in London.