Since his stage debut (Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso, on April 8th, 2016) the Acosta Dance Company is integrated by dancers of different academic backgrounds, and its objective is to produce dance shows in accordance with the most modern notions developed in the world, not only in the matter of movement of the bodies but in everything concerning the stage. In each appearance the company offers an integrative program that goes from the contemporary to the neoclassical, without neglecting other expressions, epochs and styles of the dance. The company defines itself as a space of renovation, research and experimentation for Cuban artists, it also opens its doors to the international creators, choreographers, musicians, designers and artists of the visual arts.
Acosta Dance was founded in 2015 by the famous Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, National Prize of Dance, and since then the company has demonstrated with its work that it has found its artistic course on the stages. It is not easy to conjugate factors and ideas, and express them theatrically, to move and transmit what somebody wishes, to reach the climax and get to the public in a fervent way, while responding to the requirements and the rigor that it is sought. During these years of life, they have achieved all of that and have surpassed the expectations.
In each presentation, almost always they add any choreographic innovation, in which different styles are moved in eclectic and audacious programs that captivate because of their originality, precise dance, beautiful aesthetics and dynamism. Since its debut, they have performed in diverse and important cities of Europe, Latin America, United States of America, Asia and Cuba. While the vast repertory includes works from important choreographers as the Japanese Saburo Teshigawara, the Spanish María Rovira, Goyo Montero and Rafael Bonachea, the Spanish living in London, Jorge Crecis, as well as Justin Peck (United States of America), Christopher Bruce and Ben Stevenson (England), the Belgian/Moroccan, Sidi L. Cherkaqui, Pontus Lidberg (Sweden), Marianela Boán (Cuba), Mickael Marso (France), Miguel Altunaga, Alexis Fernández (Maca), Ely Regina, Beatriz García, Raúl Reinoso, and Carlos Acosta himself, among others. The choreographies presented during this period of time have created an original/creative/daring repertory that is related to the fundamental idea of the director when he created the group: “What I have tried – he said – is to give to the company a unique, authentic voice, and this time is the result of mixing the two exigencies: trying to find a repertory with a common language in which the different dance forms and rhythms could be interweaved. Besides pursuing our objective of making it function in both senses: to bring the world to Cuba and to take Cuba to the world”.
As years go by, since its foundation to the present, Acosta Dance has offered to the Cuban public programs of a highest aesthetic/creative value, produced under suggestive titles like Destinos, Mitos, Encuentros, Cuerpos, Rituales, Evolución, or titles taken from the seasons: Verano (Summer), Otoño (Autumn)…, to denominate or baptize these passionate encounters with the Cuban public which intensely follows it. The company’s seasons have been characterized by pieces of different styles and choreographic tones that invade the landscape of the human soul reflecting always the soul of the DANCE.
Carlos Acosta
Carlos Acosta is one of the most well- known dancers of the end of the 20th century, formed in the National Ballet School of Cuba where he had important masters like Ramona de Sáa. Between the years 1989-1991 he went touring all through the orb, invited by diverse companies, and during his student formation he won important prizes and awards, among them: the Gold Medal of the Prix de Lausanne; the Grand Prize in the IV International Biennial Contest of Paris; Dance Vignale Prize (Italy), as well as Frédéric Chopin Prize given by the Polish Artistic Corporation. Toward 1991 he obtained the Merit Award in the Young Talents Contest, Positano (Italy), the Grand Prize of the UNEAC (Cuba). As a dancer he has worked as a leading dancer in groups as the Royal Ballet of London, the National Ballet of Cuba, Ballet of Houston, American Ballet Theater, Ballet of the Bolshoi Theater, Ballet of the Opera of Paris, the English National Ballet, Ballet of Australia, among many others. Nowadays, he is also the director of the Real Ballet of Birmingham (United Kingdom). Among other awards he is Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Benois Prize of The Dance.
