Acosta Danza’s 100% Cuban
Twelve extraordinary dancers bring Cuban flair and flavour to Nottingham this February
Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
15 & 16 February 2022
Dance Consortium presents a thrilling mixed bill including three UK premieres
Last spring, Acosta Danza’s tour of the UK was cut short by the pandemic. In spring 2022, Dance Consortium welcomes the Havana-based company back with an exhilarating new mixed bill. 100% Cuban is five works – including three UK premieres – all infused with Cuba’s rich music and dance influences. The tour will visit the Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 February.
Acosta Danza was set up by iconic ballet star Carlos Acosta to develop young talent, showcase Cuban performers and put the vibrancy of Cuban culture firmly centre stage. In just six years, the company has developed an unrivalled reputation as an ensemble of magnetic performers with a boundary-pushing repertoire of work by both international and home-grown choreographers.
100% Cuban features UK premieres from three exciting young Cuban choreographers – Hybrid by Norge Cedeno Raffo, Liberto by Raúl Reinoso and De Punta a Cabo by Alexis Fernandez (Maca). Also in the programme are two big hits from the 2020 UK tour – Paysage, soudain, la nuit by Sweden’s Pontus Lidberg and Impronta created for Acosta Danza by Spanish choreographer Maria Rovira.
Hybrid is a new commission for the company’s twelve dancers from Norge Cedeno Raffo. After ten years as a principal dancer and choreographer for Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, Raffo went on to develop his choreographic work becoming artistic director and principal choreographer of the Cuban Company OtroLado.
Acosta Danza dancer Raúl Reinoso created Liberto on two of his fellow dancersin 2020, one of several works he has made for the company since he joined in 2015. Through a mix of folk and contemporary dance styles, fiction and mythology, Reinoso conjures Cuba’s ancestral Yoruba gods to tell the story of a runaway slave. Liberto is a call for the right of every individual to choose their own path in life. The score is by young composer José V Gavilondo.
Pontus Lidberg’s Paysage, Soudain, la nuit is a dream-like celebration of youth set in the magic hours between twilight and dawn. The dancers perform constantly-shifting formations in a grassy landscape installation by Cuban artist Elizabet Cerviño. Cuban composer Leo Brouwer provides the rumba-infused soundtrack with additional music by Swedish composer Stefan Levin.
Maria Rovira created the solo Impronta specially for company dancer Zeleidy Crespo whose training is rooted in the folkloric dance styles of Cuba. Clad in turquoise, Crespo dances centre stage, whirling and shimmering, drawing the audience in with her virtuosic physicality. Impronta is set to music by José V Gavilondo.
De Punta a Cabo, created by Alexis Fernández (Maca) for Acosta Danza’s debut season in 2016, is set against the backdrop of the Malecón, a broad esplanade and seawall stretching for eight kilometres along the Havana coastline. In the piece for twelve dancers, Maca shares his impressions of the contemporary Cuba he knows and loves – a country full of contrasts, traditional and modern, poverty and development, beauty and ugliness. It is danced to a score by three companies – Kumar, Kike Wolf (whose work is based on La Bella Cubana by Jose White) and Omar Sosa. It is danced to a score by three composers – Kumar, Kike Wolf (whose work is based on La Bella Cubana by José White) and Omar Sosa.
100% Cuban is presented by Dance Consortium, the UK-wide consortium of 18 large-scale theatres, whose mission is to bring the best international contemporary dance to audiences across the UK.
Carlos Acosta, the company’s founder, says: “I am thrilled that Acosta Danza is returning to the UK after such a difficult time for the industry. I look forward to sharing the 100% Cuban programme with you, showcasing some of the finest Cuban dancers I have ever had the pleasure of working with.”
LISTINGS INFORMATION
ACOSTA DANZA: 100% Cuban
Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Tuesday 15 & Wednesday 16 February 2022 7.30pm
Repertoire:
Hybrid – choreography Norge Cedeno Raffo
Liberto – choreography Raúl Reinoso
Interval
Paysage, soudain, la nuit – choreography Pontus Lidberg
Impronta – choreography Maria Rovira
De Punta a Cabo – choreography Alexis Fernandez (Maca)
£17.50 – £34 plus discounts for Students, Schools, and Groups
Box Office 0115 989 5555
Dance Consortium is a group of 18 large-scale UK venues with a shared passion for engaging people with the best contemporary dance from across the world. Since its formation in 2000, Dance Consortium has presented over 46 tours by 26 different companies (from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, France, The Netherlands, South Africa, Taiwan, Israel and the USA) to over 700,000 people. Their performances and education activities have been experienced by around 700,000 people across all parts of the UK. Dance Consortium receives investment as a national portfolio organisation of Arts Council England. https://danceconsortium.com/
Dance Consortium members are Grand Opera House Belfast; Birmingham Hippodrome; Alhambra Theatre Bradford; Brighton Dome; Marlowe Theatre Canterbury; Wales Millennium Centre Cardiff; Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin; Festival Theatre Edinburgh; Eden Court Inverness; Sadler’s Wells Theatre and The Peacock London; Milton Keynes Theatre; Theatre Royal Newcastle; Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham with Dance 4; Theatre Royal Plymouth; The Lowry Salford; The Mayflower, Southampton; Hull, New Theatre; Norwich Theatre Royal.
Acosta Danza was created by Carlos Acosta in 2015 to harness and develop the young creative dance talent emerging from Cuba. The ethos of the company is to produce dancers who combine Cuba’s rich musical and dance influences with both classical and contemporary genres and create exciting and stimulating repertoire that pushes conventional boundaries. Acosta Danza has worked with some of the world’s leading choreographers as well as encouraging the emergence and development of new choreography from among its own members. The company performed for the first time at the Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso in Cuba in April 2016 and has since performed across Europe and internationally to great critical acclaim. Acosta Danza is a Sadler’s Wells International Associate Company. Acosta Danza is generously supported by Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet
East Midlands Theatre. 