Carlos Acosta on Nutcracker in Havana
Carlos Acosta on Nutcracker in Havana
Ellie Holmes talks to the star of the ballet world about his new production that puts a Cuban spin on a classic…
There is much excitement about Carlos Acosta’s brand-new production, Nutcracker in Havana, which bursts onto the stage this winter, performed by more than 20 dancers from his Cuban company Acosta Danza.
The show unites his roots in Havana with his experiences at the world’s most prestigious dance companies, including The Royal Ballet, which was his home for 17 years.
Carlos has been performing variations of The Nutcracker since he was 18-years-old and has a deep knowledge of arguably the most famous Christmas ballet of all time. He says: “The Nutcracker is the greatest show in any company’s repertoire, it comes back every year and often ends up being the performance with the biggest number of productions during the whole year. So much of the success of this work is the fact that it’s a family show, which is very inclusive, light and magical.
“Everyone can relate to the show, regardless of age, and the music is so recognisable that there are always elements to it that people know whether they are fans of ballet or not.”
His Cuban take on The Nutcracker isn’t a combination that you would automatically think of and is a far cry from the traditional setting for Clara in bourgeois Germany, but Carlos’ personal story explains why he was so keen to merge the worlds.
“When I was growing up in Cuba, we didn’t have Christmas. After the revolution, religion was taboo, and so my generation was never really exposed to the spirit of Christmas.”
In fact, when Carlos started dancing with the Houston Ballet from 1993 to 1998 as a principal dancer, he was somewhat overcome with the traditions of the festive season. “When I first started in Houston, I was staying with director Ben Stevenson, and he had this full pine tree in his living room, surrounded by presents, and I hadn’t experienced anything like it in my culture.”
Carlos was keen to explore the magic of Christmas in the setting of his birthplace of Havana. “Instead of a mansion there is a shack in humble Cuba, the house is made of wood and there are lots of palm trees, you can see the red soil of the Caribbean and the tobacco plantations, so it’s very evocative,” he explains.
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The original Tchaikovsky score has been given a Latin makeover by Pepe Gavilondo, and rearranged with elements of Cuban and Caribbean music, calypso, and jazz. “From the word go, you know the music, but it has been re-orchestrated, and we use horns, trumpets, electric guitars. It’s been quite a journey, and we have been careful with the score. We have taken the best players in Cuba and mixed all the parts up and ensured that they can be tweaked and adapted to the different venues we are performing in.”
While Carlos has become one of the world’s most renowned stars of ballet, it wasn’t a straightforward path. One of 11 children in an impoverished family, his father saw ballet as a path to a better life for his son but Carlos was unimpressed.
Says Carlos: “When I was growing up in Havana, we were very poor,” he says. “I didn’t like school and it was easy in my neighbourhood to fall in with the wrong crowd. My father didn’t want that for me.”
Ballet training would provide a stable, disciplined environment. But it wasn’t an instantaneous fit – it was the 80s and Carlos preferred to breakdance. He skipped classes and was thrown out of the school in Havana, but a teacher saw his potential and persuaded another ballet school to take him on. From there, things started to flourish.
“I kind of changed my perception of ballet dancing, and saw how athletic and strong you have to be to do it well and I fell in love with it.”
There was another small break from ballet when Carlos was 18 after he sustained an injury. At the time, he was with the English National Ballet. “I tried to keep dancing but I was in a lot of pain. I realised that I had to give up and I went back to Cuba for a year to have surgery and I didn’t dance for that period.”
When I ask him what advice he would give young dancers trying to break into the industry, he says: “In ballet, failure doesn’t exist, and life is a continuing learning process. You have to persevere, work hard and be focused on what you want your outcome to be.”
Carlos retired from dancing in 2016 and since 2020 he has been director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. As to what’s next, he says: “I want to pass on my company Acosta Danza in good shape, it now has a centre in Woolwich in London and I want to leave a legacy. I also have exciting ideas and visions for my work with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and I would like to write another book, when I have the headspace.” He has written two books, including the fictional Pig’s Foot, and his autobiography No Way Home.
His heritage has inspired previous productions. When working with the Royal Ballet, Carlos choreographed his semi-autobiographical show, Tocororo.
With Nutcracker in Havana, he is merging his appreciation of his culture with his love for ballet: “I can combine the joy of The Nutcracker with the vibrant Havana culture and I can’t wait to take audiences from the humble settings of Clara’s home through to the beautiful dream sequences, passing through the vibrant Havana ballrooms of the 1940s and 50s.”
This refreshing variation on the festive classic looks set to engage and appeal to ballet audiences both old and new.
- Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker Tour will be at Richmond Theatre on 26/27 November
- London’s Southbank Centre 10 December to 15 December
- Woking’s New Victoria Theatre 10/11 January
Main image: Carlos Acosta CBE in his car in Havana. Credit Eduardo Lara.
Ballet images: Johan Persson
