Saw this in Dublin last night in an almost empty cinema as a family of four relatively new-to-dance dancers, ranging from 4 years old to 44.
Viscera was fun to watch technically, but between the annoying camera work and some local distractions I didn't really connect with it. To have Liam Scarlett talking about the dancers moving as a pack in the interview before and then to have the camera completely obscure that part of the choreography a lot of the time was maddening. I liked Morera in it, would have liked to have seen it either in person or with a fixed camera view.
Faun was beautiful. For a quiet piece like that to hold the attention of four and seven year old boys is quite something.
The Tchaikovsky pas de deux was just fun: the seven year old literally had his mouth hanging open watching McRae, so I'm not going to fault it! I like his dancing (wish I could be that good when I grow up :-) ), but McRae's grin always grates slightly.
Carmen was the most Carlos Acosta thing ever. Big and brash and over energetic, bundling all his influences together. It reminded us in a weird way of Soviet stuff like Ivan the Terrible only decadent, crossed with some sort of Spanish/Cuban festival. Some of the party scenes were a bit flabby, but I often think that about the filler scenes in the traditional classics. Seemed a deeply personal piece of work (if you've read "No way home" it fits perfectly into his own story/myth), if a bit over indulgent. We all enjoyed it greatly.
It was good to see his lovely send-off too - he's a great favourite of the seven year old, who is precisely the child who needs to be told that it's ok to make mistakes …