Carlos Acosta brings the streets of Havana to 'The Nutcracker' with new take on festive ballet

(4 Mar 2024)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
London - 4 March 2024
1. Various of dancer
2. Wide of ballet director Carlos Acosta standing next to dancer
3. Close of "Nutcracker in Havana" poster on screen
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlos Acosta, ballet director:
"'Nutcracker' means, in many ways, Christmas, it's about the Christmas festivity. And it's about home. It's about family. I arrived in Houston in 1993, and I didn't even know what Christmas was. That was my first... the first time that I come to the whole festivity."
5. Mid of Acosta and Stephen Crocker, CEO of Norwich Theatre Royal
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlos Acosta, ballet director:
"I thought to myself that to create a show that in many ways give the Cuban people the Christmas that we never had and place the show in the heart of Cuba with their own Cuban rhythms and dances and - in many ways - speaks about these families, which is very humble."
7. Various of rehearsal video showing examples of Cuban dancing
8. Acosta and Crocker watching video
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlos Acosta, ballet director:
I think it's great because this is going to be a 'Nutcracker' completely different than all the rest of the 'Nutcracker's out there. And that gives a reason to the audiences to come and watch and experience something completely different. It’s going to be joyful, it’s going to be happy just like Cuban people are. And you know, just a 'Nutcracker' in Cuba, in the Caribbean, I think it's a completely different proposition, so."
10. Wide of presentation
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen Crocker, CEO of Norwich Theatre Royal:
"This has always been part of the vision for this telling of 'Nutcracker' that it should speak differently. A lot of versions of 'Nutcracker' look the same. You see people who look the same in every production. So creating a version of 'Nutcracker' with a global majority company, and creating it with a Black artist is really, really important to tell the story from that space. But also to make a show that is flexible in the way that it tours, so that we can go to towns that might not get any dance at all, certainly wouldn't ever get a 'Nutcracker,' because I think that helps audiences to take the work to them and to keep it at that amazing level of quality you would see anywhere else."
12. Various of Acosta giving a presentation

STORYLINE:
Carlos Acosta, the Cuban-born ballet star, has danced "The Nutcracker" countless times in his glittering career. Now he’s giving the ballet a twist by putting the culture and music of his homeland at the heart of the festive classic.

Acosta is choreographing and directing his new show, "Nutcracker in Havana," which reimagines the traditional story by setting it in Cuba and fusing classical ballet with the street dances of Havana. It will be set to a new version of Tchaikovsky’s familiar score, mixed with vibrant Latin jazz, bossa nova and Cuban folk.

"This is going to be a 'Nutcracker' completely different to all the rest of the 'Nutcracker's out there," Acosta said Monday in London as he launched the new production. "It’s going to be joyful, it’s going to be happy just like Cuban people are."

The show, which is set to tour U.K. cities from November, will be performed by some 20 dancers from Acosta Danza, the Havana-based dance company Acosta founded in 2016.

It’s something of a journey back in time for Acosta, who grew up as the youngest of 11 children in a deprived neighborhood in Havana. As a young boy, Acosta was into disco and break-dancing; he didn’t start ballet until about 9-years-old, but he soon advanced to the very top of the dance world against the odds.



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