Cuban Baroque

Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza brings Cuban Baroque to Sadler’s Wells, a double bill that showcases the discipline and ornamentation of Baroque music alongside the sheer athleticism and freedom of contemporary dance. The pairing suits a company founded on the idea that Cuban dancers need not choose between their classical training and the wider movement traditions of their homeland. It’s like a shot of adrenalin from a company of extraordinary young dancers.

Acosta, born in Havana in 1973, is a much loved celebrity in the dance world. He trained at Cuba’s National Ballet School before embarking on an international career that included a celebrated period with the Royal Ballet. After leaving the company in 2016, he established Acosta Danza to give emerging Cuban dancers and choreographers a platform, with the aim of allowing their classical technique to coexist with contemporary forms and Cuba’s distinctive musical heritage. Cuban Baroque demonstrates how fruitful that idea can be.

The first work, Andonis Foniadakis’s Pearls, is a new creation drawing on Esteban Salas’s Salve Regina. Rather than treating the Baroque source as something to be faithfully reproduced, Foniadakis uses it as a starting point for something much more physical and unpredictable. Julien Tarride’s musical treatment combines the original material with driving electronic sounds, while the ten dancers move between tightly organised formations and bursts of apparently uncontained energy.

There is an impressive physical stamina to Pearls. Dancers repeatedly regroup, separate and collide, creating constantly shifting patterns across the stage. At times, however, the intensity is sustained for so long that the choreography begins to lose some of its impact. Its most compelling passages come when the precision of the ensemble gives way to something more earthy and instinctive. The shifting lighting reinforces the sense of constant transformation, while the deep burgundy costumes lend the dancers a striking, almost martial presence.

Goyo Montero’s Chacona, first created in 2011, provides a refreshing counter-weight. Bach’s Chaconne, from the Partita No. 2 in D minor, is performed live with piano, violin and guitar, and the choreography responds closely to its structure and variations. Groups form and dissolve, dancers peel away into duets and solos, with time to breath and admire the sheer beauty of each phrase. There’s no doubt that the live musicians bring a rich immediacy to the work that appears to drive the dancers across the stage.

Together, the two pieces make a persuasive case for Acosta’s vision. Pearls is the more visceral and contemporary of the pair; Chacona allows the dancers’ classical grounding to come more clearly to the fore. The result is an irrepressible and ambitious evening that sets an unflinching challenge to the contemporary dance world. There is technical precision here, but also a willingness to take risks with form, music and physicality. Acosta Danza is at its most compelling when those elements collide unpredictably, with live musicians and physical humour punctuating the visual feast. Cuban Baroque confirms a company with the dancers, imagination and artistic confidence to make a distinctive contribution to the international stage.


Photo credit: Johan Persson