Carlos Acosta's Nutcracker in Havana

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Acosta Danza Nutcracker in Havana The Lowry, 27 Jan 2025, 19:30

Carlos Acosta's Nutcracker in Havana had been promoted as a reimagining of Ivanov's ballet.  That filled me with trepidation as I negotiated Manchester's rush hour traffic because reworking a well-known and well-loved ballet is not easy to do.  David Dawson pulled it off with his Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet as did Ted Brandsen with his Coppelia but I regret that I can't say the same for David Nixon's Swan Lake or the Coppelia of Morgann Runacre-Temple and Jessica Wright.

Although the show started with projections of Havana and an ancient American convertible lumbering across the stage Nutcracker in Havana was not so very different from any other Nutcracker. While the Stahlbaums' Christmas party was set in Havana and the score was orchestrated with Latin American rhythms and harmonies using a lot of percussion and such instruments as the Cuban tres and lute, the story was followed faithfully even down to the snow scene and the children's choir. All the characters were recognizable and the choreography retained such highlights as Sugar Plum's pas de deux with her prince.

The Sugar Plum Fairy in this production was Laura Rodríguez a former principal of Camaguey Ballet,  She was partnered by Alejandro Silva, a former principal of the Cuban National Ballet.  The ballet revolves around the adventures of Clara and Drosselmeyer.  Clara was danced with vivacity and charm by Adria Dia. Drosselmeyer, who was referred to as Tío or Uncle Elías Drosselmeyer in the cast list, was danced by Alexander Verona.  According to the programme notes he had made his way to Miami 30 years earlier where he acquired his fortune.  He performed some spectacular conjuring tricks and it was those tricks that impressed one member of the audience who was otherwise critical of the show.

 

Brandy Martinez was Clara's naughty little brother Frirz who could not keep his fingers off her Christmas present.   He also took part in a very athletic Russian dance in Act II.  Denzel Francis was King Rat, Clara's grandfather, a cook and one of the very energetic and almost aggressive dancers in the Chinese dance.   The other dancer in that divertissement was Leandro Fernandez who was also one of the children.  Everyone in the show danced well and if I were to mention everyone who impressed me this review would look like a telephone directory.

I enjoyed the show and so it seemed did most of the audience who rewarded the cast with a standing ovation. Much of the success should be attributed to Nina Dunn's set designs and projections, Angelo Alberto's costumes and Pepe Gavilondo Péon's arrangements of the score.

I had previously seen Acosta Danza's 100% Cuban in 2022.  That was a mixed bill.  Staging a full-length classical ballet is a more complex proposition. It demonstrates how much the company has developed in the last three years.  Their UK base is the Acosta Dance Centre in Woolwich which I visited in 2023.  Though they are a Cuban company they are contributing much to dance and dance education in this country.  

Acosta Danza "100% Cuban"

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Acosta Danza 100% Cuban  New Theatre, Hull, 25 Feb 2022, 19:30

Cuba may be a small Caribbean island with a population of 11.2 million but it has world-class national ballet and contemporary dance companies.  Joanna Goodman reviewed one of the Cuban National Ballet's performances of Swan Lake in its own theatre in 2014 (see "We are the dancers, we create the dreams: Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s El Lago de los Cisnes in Havana" 8 July 2014). I reviewed the national contemporary dance company when it visited the Lowry (see Danza Contemporanea de Cuba at the Lowry 19 Feb 2017).

Artists from Cuba have contributed not only to their own national companies but also to leading companies of other nations.  Probably the best known of those is Carlos Acosta. He is now the artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.  Previously he was a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet.  A glimpse at his website shows that Acosta is more than a dancer and choreographer. He is an entrepreneur, novelist and indeed impresario.

In 2016 Acosta established Acosta Danza which he has described as "Some of the finest Cuban dancers I have ever had the pleasure of working with."  The company is touring the United Kingdom and my friend and I caught up with it at the Hull New Theatre on Friday.  We were treated to the following:

• Liberto 
• Hybrid 
• Paysage, Soudain, La Nuit
• Impronta, and
• De Punto a Cabo.

These were very different works that showed off the versatility of the company.

Liberto was a duet created by Raúl Reinoso to the music of Pepe Gavilondo.  The programme contains the following note:

"The story of a cimarron, invites us to reflect on the faces of slavery, from ancient times to the present day. The meeting of the fugitive with the woman, beyond the beginning of a love story, is a moment of reflection and retelling, the possible discovery of the path to the utopian kingdom of total freedom."

I think cimarron must be the Spanish word for "Maroon" who were fugitive slaves.  They formed colonies in the Caribbean and some found their way to Freetown in Sierra Leone where I first learnt their story.  The ballet featured a couple. I am not sure of the identity of the man because the company did not publish a cast list. I asked for one in a Q & A that followed the show but the company's interpreter did not seem to know what I was talking about or why I needed one.   I think Reinoso danced the male role and believe the woman was Zeleidy Crespo but I cannot be sure. I remember a giant net from which the man struggled to escape.  The designs were by Alisa Peláez. The lighting was by Yaron Abulafia.

Like a football match, Hybrid was a combination of two halves. Quite literally because there was a point when the cast lined up for a curtain call, accepted the applause and then slowly started dancing again.  The inspiration for the work appears to have been the legend of Sisyphus:

“O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.

(The Myth of Sisyphus).  According to the programme, the piece was about a "universe where the real and the unreal blur their limits to reach our chimaeras." It continued:

"An approach to sensitive realities and imaginaries of a nation and its people, told from the strength of its culture and dance.
An island that unveils its mysteries on a path that goes from darkness to light"

The whole company or at least a large part of it seemed to be in the work. The music was by Jenny Peña and Randy Araujo, the choreography by Norge Cedeño and Thais Suárez, the designs by Celia Ledón and the lighting by Yaron Abulafia.

This was not to everyone's taste because the audience thinned out a little after the interval.

As the music was entitled Cuban landscape with rumba by Leo Brouwer and Cuban Landscape by Stefan Levin and the ballet was danced against a backdrop of growing crops, I understood Paysage, Soudain, La Nuit to be an appreciation of the Cuban countryside and those who worked in it.  This was another work in which the whole company participated.  The choreographer was Pontus Lidberg. Costumes were by Karen Young.  The lighting was by Patrik Bogårdh.

The most spectacular work was Impronta.  It was a solo by Crespo which she performed to the music of José V. Gavilondo. The show started with a mass of blue.  It was not clear whether that was a prop or a group of dancers.  It turned out to be a long flowing dress worn by the dancer. A tall, elegant and exceptionally supple woman, Crespo had bent her body almost to the floor so that her face appeared through the dress.  In the Q&A, Crespo explained that the dress represented the sea.  In answer to a  question from my friend, she said that the dance had been influenced largely by African rhythms.  The programme added:

"Catalan choreographer María Rovira created this solo in wich contemporary dance merges with Afro-Cuban folk dances."

Several audience members stood to applaud Crespo's performance at the end.  Others whooped with delight.  The reaction was well merited because it was impressive.

My favourite ballet was De Punto a Cabo.  I surmise that the title must refer to a seaside walk that is opposite Havana.  The backdrop was of a busy city separated by a stretch of water and a sea wall. Alexis Fernández's choreography to José White and Omar Sosa's music reminded me of the view of Manhattan in the last scene of Liam Scarlett's Age of Anxiety (see Bernstein Centenary  18 March 2018). The piece generated much the same energy and awe.   The website states in Spanish that the choreographer sought to transpose into dance his impressions of contemporary Cuba, a land of diversity and contrasts. He made that point by combining ballet with contemporary dance.  There were some spectacular fouettés from Penélope Morejón as well as contemporary expressions to African and Cuban rhythms.

In the Q&A we learnt that the morning company class alternates between ballet and contemporary. Each of the dancers was asked which style they preferred.  None expressed a preference except Morejón who seemed to glow as she talked about ballet.  There were the usual easily anticipated questions from the floor about the creative process, influences and how they liked the British weather. The best intervention came from a lady from Bridlington who had to dash for a train. She probably spoke for all of us in expressing gratitude for the pleasure the company had brought after a 2-year pandemic.

This was the first time I had attended the Hull New Theatre and my first impressions are good.  It is located on Kingston Square where there was plenty of free street parking.  There is a restaurant and bar which offered inter alia burgers and scampi and chips. It was not exactly gourmet food and slightly over-priced for what it was but it was very convenient.  The auditorium seemed well ventilated.  The seats were comfortable with enough legroom at least for me.

Acosta Danza is nearing the end of its UK tour.  They are at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury tonight and at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth at the end of the week. 

Ballet as a Brand? How to bring More Money into Dance for Companies and Dancers

Degas, Class                                                           Source Wikipedia

On 20 Nov 2013 The New York Times published an article by Michael Cooper and Roslyn Sulcas entitled "Ballet Dancers as Brands". The opening sentence was as follows

"A wave of international ballet stars are increasingly leaping from company to company, creating their own brands and becoming more like world-traveling conductors and opera stars."

Alina Cojocaru was quoted as saying:

"Ballet careers are relatively short and require years of training that pose the risk of injury, yet the world’s top dancers earn far less money than their counterparts elsewhere in show business."

Less money? Well according to Cooper and Sulcas only three dancers at American Ballet Theatre earned more than US$190,000 and  the étoiles at the Paris Opera earn on average, around US$125,000 a year. Now bearing in mind how long it takes to become a principal and how few dancers actually reach the top that is not a lot of money. It may allow a reasonably comfortable standard of living for a few years while the dancer is at the peak of his or her career but it does not allow him or her to plan, save and invest for a comfortable retirement or other priorities like private education for his or her children.

What to do about it? Well I don't think dancers can expect very much more from  their companies. The arts in the United Kingdom at any rate rely on grants, ticket receipts and corporate and individual sponsorship for their income. Can that be increased? A bit perhaps but not by much.  There is a limit to what the public will pay whether as taxpayer or theatre goer. Especially in hard times.

So is there anything else that can be done? Well perhaps. As the Bailey's Nutcracker commercial showed last Christmas ballet can sell. Maybe advertising, merchandising and endorsement. A few companies are already making a little extra money from advertising. The Royal Opera House shop offers a wide range of merchandise bearing the Royal Ballet name and crest such as books, calendars, greeting cards, t-shirts and videos. Other companies sell t-shirts. A website called Balletgifts, which appears to be based in New Cross. markets various items of clothing and other merchandise for the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky. Many companies hire out rooms in their studios or their orchestras. Most also have schemes by which businesses and individuals can become friends or patrons of a company or sponsor individual productions or dancers.

What about individual dancers? A few superstars like Carlos Acosta and Darcey Bussell have websites through which they market branded merchandise. Acosta offers clothing and posters and advertises his book with links to Amazon and Waterstones. Bussell markets a range of children's dancewear, books and games and DVDs from her site. But not every principal of the Royal Ballet does that and a few do not even have websites or social media accounts. I think more could be done in that regard by other dancers because many ballet goers are loyal almost to the point of obsession referring to artists whom they hardly know and in most cases have never met or are ever likely to meet by their first names. Ballet tickets are not cheap yet some fans see the same work albeit with different casts in the same season. Moreover the audience for ballet and thus the fan base will expand massively with HDTV broadcasts to cinemas around the world.

If companies or dancers want to exploit such goodwill they have to protect and manage it in the way that sports stars and indeed other entertainers do. Company names and indeed the names of individual dancers are valuable assets and should be protected by trade mark registration. Last night I made a number of searches on the Intellectual Property Office databases and was surprised to find that not every major company in the United Kingdom let alone every dancer had registered their names and logos as trade marks. They really do need good advice on IP and licensing strategy and no doubt tax planning and pension advice as well.  If there is sufficient interest from dancers and their companies to discuss these issues I would be very happy to organize one and speak for free as my gift to those who have given me so much pleasure in the past.

For those who may be interested ........

Anna Pavlova as Giselle Source Wikipedia

Last week I saw and reviewed an exquisite production of Giselle at the Royal Opera House (see "Giselle - Royal Ballet 18 Jan 2014" 20 Jan 2018). On Monday 27 Jan 2914 cinema audiences around the world will get the chance to see the same principals in the same production streamed live from Covent Garden. Details of the transmission are to be found on the Royal Opera House's website. One of the cinema chains showing the broadcast in the UK will be Odeon and you check out your local flicks here.

Now a word of warning! Watching an HDTV transmission is not the same as being in the Royal Opera House for the reasons I set out in "¡Por favor! Don Quixote streamed to Huddersfield" 17 Oct 2013. As I said in that article an HDTV transmission bears about as much resemblance to the theatrical experience as hamburger does to fillet steak but it does have a number of advantages such as convenience, economy and the opportunity in some transmissions actually to get some input from those who have created the production. The Royal Ballet transmissions are nothing like as good as the Bolshoi's (see my reviews of Jewels 22 Jan 2014 and Spartacus 21 Oct 2013) let alone the Met's from New York which are by far the best; but I still recommend the Royal Ballet's highly and I hope to be at the Huddersfleld Odeon at 19:00 on Monday.

On the subject of Huddersfield I reviewed Fiona Noonan's ballet classes in "Team Hud Adult Ballet Class" 22 Jan 2014. Well Fiona also teaches ballercise which is a combination of pilates, ballet and aerobics in the same dance studio at Student Central on the university campus at 16:45 on Fridays. It was Fiona's ballercise classes at my local gym in Honley that brought me back into ballet. I started them when I was at the lowest possible ebb a few weeks after losing my spouse to motor neurone disease and 6 months after some life changing surgery of my own. I am not exaggerating in saying that they were the start of a new lease of life for me. If you do ballet or even if you don't but want to have a lot of fun with some great kids then check out this class. Don't be put off by the first 5 letters in ballercise. No experience is necessary.

Finally I was told by a lady on BalletcoForum that I had "an interesting mindset" which I interpreted as a gentle reprimand for my remark:

"This class was just what I needed. My confidence had taken a knock a week or two ago when I fell flat on my face trying to do posés pirouettes that I had not really mastered and I was starting to ask myself whether at age 65 I wasn't getting a little bit too old for this ballet malarkey."

This lady is very, very keen and doubtless very, very good at ballet and she told me that falls are to be expected in ballet and the only thing to do is to get back onto one's feet and do the exercise again. She added that any teacher who counsels otherwise is not doing her job. Well as it happened I did get on my feet and I carried on even though I was quite shaken and I still have the grazes, scratches and bruises. I learned that lesson the better part of a century ago when learning to ride a bike and I don't need a ballet teacher to repeat that lesson now.

However, I also got a real bollocking for taking unnecessary risks from many of those who know me best and have my best interests at heart who pointed out that I am a barrister and not a ballet dancer and I am very lucky to do the job I do. They are also right. Even if I had started to study ballet at the right age and even if I had the talent to make a career on the stage I would still have chosen the law over ballet. I am so fortunate never to have to retire from a job I love. I also love ballet as a recreation both as a theatre goer and as an over mature student but it is only a recreation and I have to keep a sense of proportion.

¡Por favor! Don Quixote streamed to Huddersfield

Huddersfield Odeon

For those who can't get to Covent Garden, the Met or any of the other great opera houses of the world live streaming is a wonderful thing. I'm not going to say that it is the next best thing to being there because in some respects it is better. It doesn't cost as much for a start and sometimes you get insights into the production through interviews with the artists, choreographers, composers, conductors and others that you would never get in any other way. The broadcasts from the Met are particularly good in that regard.

But it is not the same thing because two ingredients of a live performance are missing.  First, there is no interaction with the artists.  You can't clap or at least you can but you will attract a lot of funny looks.  There is not a lot of point because nobody on the stage can hear you.  And you certainly can't shower flowers on the stage as you could when there was a flower market at Covent Garden.  Secondly you see what the camera takes you to.  Great close ups but ballet is intended to be appreciated as a whole from seat G5 in the stalls or even the upper slips of the amphitheatre.

Tonight's broadcast of the Royal Ballet's Don Quixote from the Royal Opera House to cinemas in 21 countries including the Huddersfield Odeon had some very good points.  Great choreography by the multi-talented Carlos Acosta and also great dancing from him as Basilio, Marianela Nunez as Kitri, Ryoichi Hirano as Espada. Laura Morera as Mercedes and Elizabeth Harrod as Amour. The set, costumes, lighting and musical arrangements were sumptuous but these are difficult to appreciate from a distance and indeed in a different medium.  

One plus perhaps of cinema is that I saw a lot more of the character dancers than I would have done in the auditorium.   For me they were the best part of the show.  Character dancing has always been something that the Royal Ballet has done better than any other company - possibly because audiences here are brought up on pantomime. Remember Robert Helpmann and Fred Ashton as the two ugly sisters in Cinderella or Wayne Sleep in just abut any role.  Well Gary Avis, Philip Mosley and above all Christopher Saunders are carrying on that great tradition.

But I left the cinema less than satisfied.  Why?  It may be because I am spoilt.  I have seen a lot of ballet lately and when you have seen the real thing  nothing else will quite do.   As I entered the auditorium an usher was offering wine together with ice cream and popcorn.  "You always have wine with ballet" she said.  That got me thinking.  Ballet in Covent Garden and ballet in Huddersfield Odeon are two different things. As different in their way as fillet steak is from hamburger.