A debut of energy and eccentricity
Acosta Danza: Debut Sadler’s Wells and touring
or his new company, Carlos Acosta has assembled 21 of the finest dancers in Cuba, irrespective of their training, turning the ballet dancers into contemporary dancers, contemporary into ballet. As he told me recently, the dancer of the 21st century, for him, is one that can tackle anything.
Acosta Danza made their eargerly anticipated UK debut last week at Sadler’s Wells, ahead of a nationwide tour. And, if this ethnically diverse troupe’s generous bill of five pieces is uneven, and downright eccentric in places, its sheer variety and experimental vim certainly make quite an impression.
It opens with Marianela Boán’s El
Cruce Sobre El Niágara (1987), which has two Greek-god performers – Carlos Luis Blanco and Alejandro Silva – wearing nothing but jockstraps, amid moody lighting. Inspired by 19th-century tightrope daredevil Charles Blondin, who once crossed the Niagara with a man on his shoulders, the work is a tapestry of infinitely slow, piano wire-tense movements that place extraordinary demands on the duo’s lower-body strength – you just try lowering yourself gracefully on to one knee, arms outstretched, with a 12st person on your back. Above all a dramatisation of mutual trust, it proves a startling showcase for Blanco and Silva, even if it takes a long time to make essentially one point.
El Cruce also feels a little too similar in theme to the evening’s stand-out piece, Mermaid. Created for Acosta
‘Mermaid shows both dancers off stunningly, and expertly capitalises on Acosta’s partnering skills’
Danza by that that most inquisitive and humanistic of contemporary choreographers, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and here getting its world premiere, this typically poetic creation pairs Acosta himself (still astonishingly lithe at 44) with another superb and glamorous dancer, Marta Ortega.
Its title, the otherworldly Koreansong score and the faltering steps that Ortega makes towards Acosta suggest a sea creature making her first, tentative steps on land. But, given that she’s also clutching an empty wine glass, which Acosta soon, oh-so-gently removes from her hands, drunkenness could be a factor. Mermaid ultimately feels much broader-scoped than any of this, however, a lyrical testament to the importance of picking up those close to us, no matter how often they fall. It also shows both dancers off to stunning effect, making particularly intelligent capital of Acosta’s unrivalled skills as a partner.
Belles Lettres (2014), by New York City Ballet’s resident choreographer Justin Peck, is another highight. A craftsmanlike, very contemporaryfeeling modern ballet for eight couples and one perfectly content loner – the marvellously musical Mario Sergio Elías – it is set to lush César Franck. And, despite having no narrative or named characters, it is full of easy conviviality and full-blooded passion, which the dancers’ extrovert movement-quality and solid technique (the odd very tense lift aside) allow to flower.
And so to the evening’s two curios. Also reworked for the company, Goyo Montero’s Imponderable is one of those high-concept, prop-heavy pieces with head-scratchingly baffling programme notes that tend to set alarm-bells ringing. Apparently about the creative process, and unfolding on a starkly lit, stripped-back stage, it ricochets violently between light and dark, with the nine dancers dousing each other in smoke and pointing torches at each other. “Impenetrable” might be a more fitting title, and in honesty I enjoyed it more when I caught it earlier in the year, in a far more intimate setting. Still, the dancers’ unselfconscious commitment keeps you watching, and one or two of the ensemble passages really catch fire.
The evening wraps with another Acosta Danza premiere, Jorge Crecis’s Twelve, for a dozen dancers and about three-dozen plastic, neon-lit water bottles. While it’s intricate, unusual, high-energy stuff – a geometric workout that sees the performers hurl the bottles (and themselves) at each other with great precision and giddy abandon – it’s also on the frivolous side and far too long, feeling as much a juggling extravaganza (yikes...) as a piece of dance. That said, it does tap straight into the sunny, have-a-go collective spirit that this energetic and immensely likeable new company already radiates, and the climax certainly put a smile on this critic’s face.