list.co.uk/theatre list.co.uk/theatre D A N C E
Previews | DANCE
CONTEMPORARY / BALLET ACOSTA DANZA: DEBUT Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Fri 10 & Sat 11 Nov
For almost 30 years, he danced to somebody else’s tune. Now, after thrilling audiences around the world, Carlos Acosta has struck out on his own. Based in his native Havana, Acosta Danza is currently touring the UK with its first show, aptly titled Debut. Starting your own company isn’t something you do lightly –
what prompted Acosta to take such a bold move?
‘I was keen to pass on what I had learned, and also to go back to Cuba and help my country,’ says the former Royal Ballet principal. ‘And the best way to do that was by having a company that could launch the careers of the next generation of Cuban talent. To give dancers a better way of life, so they don’t have to resort to defecting, but can live comfortably doing what they do best, and still travel the world.
For Acosta, that was ‘an opportunity I never had’, with both
salaries and conditions in Cuba generally poor. He also calls the repertoire available to him in Cuba as a young dancer ‘stagnant’ – something he’s determined won’t be the case at Acosta Danza.
For Debut, he enlisted five acclaimed choreographers to ‘build my repertoire from zero’. So in came Spaniards Goyo Monetero and Jorge Crecis, New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck, Cuban Marianela Boán, and Sadler’s Wells associate artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Between them, they’ve created a mix of classical and neo-classical ballet and contemporary dance – perfect for the dancers Acosta has been shaping over the past two years. ‘In the beginning, the ballet dancers were really classical and
had never experienced contemporary dance before,’ he says, ‘and the contemporary dancers had only a very basic classical training. So the gap between those two techniques was huge. But two years down the line, when you watch the company, you see that everybody does everything – contemporary but also pointe work and neo-classical – and that’s very refreshing.’ (Kelly Apter)
CONTEMPORARY BALLETBOYZ: FOURTEEN DAYS Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 7 Nov; Dundee Rep, Thu 9 Nov DANCE FUSION SLANJAYVAH DANZA: 6 FEET, 3 SHOES Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, Fri 24 Nov
Many people need a deadline for motivation, but the eight choreographers and musicians behind the BalletBoyz’ latest show really had their eyes on the clock. Choreographers Iván Pérez, Christopher Wheeldon, Craig Revel Horwood
and Javier de Frutos were paired with composers Joby Talbot, Keaton Henson, Charlotte Harding and Scott Walker and given just 14 days to create a brand new piece. The resulting works are currently touring the UK, performed alongside Russell Maliphant’s acclaimed work, Fallen. For Revel Horwood, a man better known for his Strictly judging and musical
theatre direction, working with the all-male contemporary dance company offered a chance to experiment with new ideas – and that’s exactly what he did.
Having discovered, on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, that his
great, great grandfather was a champion clog dancer in Australia, Revel Horwood asked the BalletBoyz crew to pull on a pair. ‘I was a novice myself,’ says Revel Horwood. ‘The first time I wore clogs was in Who Do You Think You Are?, so it was a real challenge for both me and the boys. ‘Story-wise, my family were goldminers and there was a revolt in their town during the mid-19th century. So I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to get miners clog dancing, and have a clog dance battle between the miners and the soldiers?
‘So we started improvising and having some fun, and it was extraordinary to
see it evolve – the boys have done brilliantly well.’ (Kelly Apter)
One came from Scotland, two from Spain, all headed in the same direction: Yorkshire. Inspired by the true-life story of three friends who met at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, 6 Feet, 3 Shoes fuses traditional Scottish step dance, flamenco and contemporary dance in a percussive celebration of cultural integration.
‘I moved from Perthshire, my two friends came from Cordoba, Spain –
and we all met in Leeds 17 years ago,’ says Jenni Wren, who directed and choreographed the show. ‘So it’s about how we got there, how we all found a family away from family, a home away from home.’ Wren formed Slanjayvah Danza in 2004 (a name inspired by the Gaelic for
welcome, ‘Slàinte’ and the Spanish word for dance), to create dance that speaks to different generations and cultures, and marries dance with other artforms.
All of which comes together in 6 Feet, 3 Shoes, performed by three dancers and three musicians hailing from England, Spain, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland.
‘It’s been interesting looking at the rhythms of flamenco and traditional folk
music,’ says Wren, ‘and finding lots of similar patterns in the footwork of flamenco and Scottish step dancing, as well as similarities between the Spanish Escuela Bolera dance and Highland dancing. So we’ve got Spanish, Scottish and contemporary dance happening separately on stage – but also moments when all three elements really come together.’ (Kelly Apter)
1 Nov 2017–31 Jan 2018 THE LIST 119