Acosta Danza News

[Pulcinella]

I'm just back from the B'ham Hippodrome from a performance of The Red Shoes and while ther I picked up a leaflet for Acosta Danza who are touring in the autumn. Among the choreographers mentioned which I hadn't seen before is Justin Peck of NYCB. So looking forward to seeing a piece of his choreography.

[Jan McNulty]

Thanks for the timely reminder Pulcinella.  I've amended the title slightly.

 

Here are the dates for the Autumn tour 2017:

 

 

27-30 September:  Sadler's Wells, London

 

03 October:  Internationale Tanzwochen Neuss, Neuss, Germany

 

07 October:  Festpielhaus St Polten, St Polten, Austria

 

12-14 October:  The Lowry, Salford

 

18-21 October:  Hippodrome, Birmingham

 

23-24 October:  Mayflower, Southampton

 

26-27 October:  Dome, Brighton

 

10-11 November:  Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

 

 

http://www.carlosacosta.com/event.php

[Jan McNulty]

And the official press release:

 

Sadler’s Wells and Valid Productions present

Acosta Danza
Debut
Sadler’s Wells and UK tour
27 September - 11 November 2017

 

Acosta Danza, the new dance company founded by acclaimed Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, receives its UK premiere at Sadler’s Wells this Autumn. Debut runs from Wednesday 27 - Saturday 30 September 2017, ahead of a UK tour.

 

Following the UK premiere at Sadler's Wells, Debut tours to The Lowry in Salford (12 – 14 Oct), Birmingham Hippodrome (18 – 21 Oct), the Mayflower Theatre Southampton (23 & 24 Oct), Brighton Dome (26 & 27 Oct) and Edinburgh Festival Theatre (10 & 11 Nov). 

 

Carlos Acosta is an internationally acclaimed star of the ballet world who set up Acosta Danza in Havana after retiring from The Royal Ballet in 2015. Under his artistic directorship, Acosta Danza features a mixture of the finest ballet and contemporary dancers Cuba has to offer. Launching at a time when Cuba is opening up to the world, Acosta Danza highlights the vibrancy and richness of Cuban culture and its artists. The company is an International Associate Company of Sadler’s Wells, and the tour is co-produced by Sadler’s Wells and Valid Productions.

 

Acosta himself makes a guest appearance as part of the programme, which features the UK premieres of works by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Goyo Montero, Jorge Crecis, Justin Peck and Marianela Boán.

 

El Cruce Sobre El Niágara (The Crossing over Niagara) by Cuban choreographer Marianela Boán is a duet for two male dancers. Boán danced and choreographed for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba for 15 years. This is one of her most acclaimed works, created in 1987 using Peruvian dramaturg Alonso Alegria’s 1969 written work of the same name.

 

Imponderable by award-winning Spanish choreographer Goyo Montero is a new work for 12 dancers inspired by the work of pre-eminent Cuban folk musician Silvio Rodriguez, known colloquially as the Cuban John Lennon. The score is created from selected works in the Rodriguez oeuvre, deconstructed and rearranged by Owen Belton, who composes regularly for Crystal Pite, National Ballet of Canada, Nederlands Dans Theater and Ballet BC.

 

New York City Ballet (NYCB) soloist and resident choreographer Justin Peck’s Belles-Lettres is a work for nine dancers, performed mostly en pointe. The piece was originally made for NYCB and is one of Peck’s most amorous ballets, replete with swooning pas de deux that build into an emotional climax.

 

Twelve by UK-based Spanish choreographer Jorge Crecis is an athletic piece performed by 12 dancers. Crecis is an associate artist at Déda in Derby.

 

Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, whose contemporary choreographies include Sutra and milonga for Sadler’s Wells, creates a new classical duet for Carlos Acosta and Marta Ortega in Mermaid.

 

Sadler’s Wells’ Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Alistair Spalding CBE said: “I am delighted to present the UK premiere of Acosta Danza at Sadler’s Wells and across the UK, and work with Carlos Acosta and Valid Productions on producing these performances. It is exciting to see Carlos work with a range of dancers and leading choreographers to celebrate Cuba’s rich history and culture and share it with the world.”

 

Carlos Acosta said: “Acosta Danza has been founded with the intention of paying tribute to the wealth of Cuban culture. The Company will develop its contemporary work, whilst also using elements of classical ballet. It is an aspiration that has grown out of my vision as an artist, incorporating all that I have learned during the past twenty-five years of my professional career.”.

 

In addition to the UK tour, Acosta Danza tours internationally to Peralada Festival in Spain, Neuss in Germany and Festspielhaus St Pölten in Austria.

 

 

Produced by Sadler’s Wells and Valid Productions

 

A co-production with The Movement and Festspielhaus St Pölten

 

The new commissions in Debut are produced as part of The Movement, a dance producing partnership between Birmingham Hippodrome, The Lowry and Sadler’s Wells. Supported by Arts Council England, The Movement aims to nurture talent and bring large scale dance productions to even wider audiences

 

Acosta Danza is a Sadler’s Wells International Associate Company

 

LISTINGS INFORMATION:

 

ACOSTA DANZA NATIONAL TOUR 2017 

 

London, Sadler’s Wells

27 - 30 September

020 7863 8000 / www.sadlerswells.com

 

Salford, Lowry

12 - 14 October

0843 208 6000/ www.thelowry.com

 

Birmingham, Hippodrome

18 - 21 October

0844 338 5000/ www.birminghamhippodrome.com

 

Southampton, Mayflower

23 - 24 October

02380 711811/ www.mayflower.org.uk

 

Brighton, Dome

26 - 27 October

01273 709709/ www.brightondome.org

 

Edinburgh, Festival Theatre

10 - 11 November

0131 529 6000 / www.edtheatres.com/festival

Notes to Editors

 

 

ABOUT CARLOS ACOSTA

Acosta trained at the National Ballet School of Cuba and won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne (1990). He was a principal with English National Ballet (1991–2), danced with National Ballet of Cuba under Alicia Alonso (1992–3) and was a principal with Houston Ballet under Ben Stevenson (1993–8). He joined The Royal Ballet in 1998 and became a Principal Guest Artist in 2003. Acosta has frequently appeared worldwide with companies including American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Kirov, Bolshoi and Australian Ballet.

 

Acosta’s past productions have played to sell-out audiences and have been lauded by critics and audiences alike. He was awarded the CBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2014 for his services to ballet and is passionate about nurturing and inspiring the next generation of dancers through the Carlos Acosta International Dance Foundation. The award marked the end of a remarkable year which had seen him stage a new production of Don Quixote at the Royal Opera House, release his debut novel Pig’s Foot, which was subsequently named as one of the Waterstone’s Eleven, an annual list of some of the most promising debut novels. 

 

Acosta choreographed Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls in 2015. The show transferred to the West End and Acosta was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer. At the National Dance Awards 2015 Acosta was awarded the De Valois Award for Lifetime Achievement. 

 

For his final Royal Ballet season Acosta choreographed and took the lead role in Carmen which ran at the Royal Opera House from October to November 2015, marking his farewell to the company after 17 years. 

 

 

ABOUT SADLER’S WELLS
Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding, the theatre’s acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. 

 

Since 2005, it has helped to bring over 130 new dance works to the stage and its award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour internationally. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies, an Associate Company and two International Associate Companies. It also nurtures the next generation of talent through research and development, running the National Youth Dance Company and a range of programmes including Wild Card, New Wave Associates, Open Art Surgery and Summer University.

 

Located in Islington, north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells. Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives approximately 9% its revenue from Arts Council England. 

 

 

ABOUT VALID PRODUCTIONS

Valid Productions has been a promoter of the performing arts in the UK and Europe since 2009. It has always worked closely with Carlos Acosta and was the co-producer of his Classical Farewell Tour throughout the UK and the rest of the world in 2016. 

 

CHOREOGRAPHER BIOGRAPHIES

 

MARIANELA BOAN

Marianela Boán graduated from the National School of Dance in 1971 and in Hispanic Literature and Language from Havana University in 1981. For 15 years, she worked for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba as a dancer and a choreographer, where she created a number of works that toured in more than 40 countries. 

In 1988, Boán founded DanzAbierta, and began to mix different theatre styles, while dealing with contemporary conflicts in her work. She uses a language that breaks with the limits of pure movement, reaching out to other forms of artistic expression such as theatre, visual arts, music and song, always demanding from the dancers the full development of all expressive channels. She calls her style "polluted dance." 

 

She has created approximately 50 choreographies for her company and for others, such as Degas for the Cuban National Ballet, A Streetcar named Desire for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, and The Tree and the Road for Venezia Balletto. She has also created choreographies for films in Cuba, Canada, and Spain. Her awards include the Choreographic Creation Award given by the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. 

 

 

SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s debut as a choreographer was in 1999 with Andrew Wale’s contemporary musical Anonymous Society. Since then, he has made more than 30 fully-fledged choreographic pieces and picked up a slew of prestigious awards.

 

While Cherkaoui’s initial pieces (Rien de Rien, Foi, Tempus Fugit) were made as a core member of the Belgian collective Les Ballets C. de la B., he also made work that both expanded and consolidated his artist vision: Ook (2000) with Nienke Reehorst and the mentally disabled actors of Theater Stap, D’avant (2002) with Damien Jalet and dancer-singers of the Sasha Waltz & Guests company and zero degrees (2005) with Akram Khan. Between 2006-2009, during his stint as associate artist at Het Toneelhuis in Antwerp, he extended his exploration of the equations between self and otherness through Sutra (2008), his dialogue with the warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple, Dunas (2009) alongside flamenco bailaora, Maria Pagés, and Play (2010) with kutchipudi dancer Shantala Shivalingappa.

 

In 2010, with the founding of his company Eastman in Antwerp, Cherkaoui began a new phase in his trajectory, marked by the multiple-award-winning Babel, co-choreographed with Damien Jalet and designed by Antony Gormley. TeZukA (2011) – his homage to Osamu Tezuka, the founding father of modern manga – and Puz/zle (2012) followed. Spring 2013 saw the premiere of 4D (Eastman), Boléro (co-created with Damien Jalet and Marina Abramovic, for the Ballet of the Opera of Paris) and m¡longa (for Sadler’s Wells).

 

Cherkaoui also received much international acclaim for his choreography in Joe Wright’s feature film Anna Karenina (2012). Cherkaoui directed and choreographed Shell Shock(2014), an opera for La Monnaie (Brussels) with music by Nicholas Lens and libretto by Nick Cave.

 

In 2008, Sadler’s Wells named him as an Associate Artist, and since 2010 he has been artistic director of the Festival Equilibrio in Rome. He is also artistic director of the Royal Ballet Flanders.

 

 

JORGE CRECIS

Jorge Crecis holds a degree in Sport Sciences and studied contemporary dance at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid. As a professional dancer he has worked with different companies throughout Europe. Between 2008 and 2012 he combined his position as a full-time lecturer at London Contemporary Dance School (The Place) and guest teacher at institutions such as Beijing Dance Academy (China), Conservatorio Superior de Madrid (Spain) and Roger Williams University (USA). He has led classes for companies including Akram Khan Company, DV8, Punchdrunk and Rambert.

 

In 2011 he directed the festival Burgos’ Aerowaves Burgos. Over the last five years he has been commissioned by companies based in the UK, Europe, Russia, and China and also by postgraduate companies such as EDge, Mapdance and Intoto.

 

In 2012 he funded SQx (somoSQuien eXperience); based upon his synthesis of sport and dance movement patterns, SQx’s team lead workshops of this cutting-edge and intense performance training methodology, allowing professionals and youth participants to enhance their stage presence and performative skills. SQx’s projects have been supported by ACE, British Council, Canada arts council, the Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Spain in the United Kingdom and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

 

He is currently a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths University of London, focusing on methodologies for training and replicating higher states of consciousness for dancers in performance. In 2014 he initiated the creation of min tala, a Pan-Arab dance project that uses contemporary dance art as a peacekeeping, personal and professional development tool. Crecis is a Déda Associate Artist 2015/16 and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Derby.

 

 

GOYO MONTERO

Born in 1975 in Madrid, Spain, muti-award-winning dancer and choreographer Goyo Montero was educated by Carmen Roche and completed his studies in the School of the National Ballet of Cuba. 

 

Goyo Montero was Principal Dancer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and soloist at the Oper Leipzig, Staatstheater Wiesbaden and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. He has been invited as guest soloist with the National Ballet of Mexico, the Perth City Ballet and the Ballet d’Èurope.

 

As a choreographer he has created pieces for the National Company of Spain, Company Maggio Danza, Deutsche Oper Berlin, National Ballet of Cuba, Opera of Kiel, Ankara and Izmir State Ballet, Modern Dance Turkey, the Company Gregor Seyffert, Ballet Carmen Roche and the Ballet de Teatres de la Generalitat Valenciana. He has also created work for festivals including the 20th International Festival of Ballet La Habana, the 71th Festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, International Festival of Music and Dance Granada, International Festival of Music and Dance “Cuevas de Nerja”, the 12th Worldballet-Festival Japan Expo Aichi 2006, International Expo Zaragoza 2008, International Contemporary Festival of Music Madrid, Festival “Madrid en Danza” and Festival “Veranos de la Villa”.

 

In 2011 he received the Premio Nacional de Danza, the National Spanish Prize for Dance, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Goyo Montero is honored for his achievements as dancer as well as for his work as director and principal choreographer of the Nuremberg Ballet.

 

In 2008/2009 Goyo Montero became Ballet Director and Principal Choreographer of the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballet. He was awarded the cultural prize of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Middle Franconia.

 

In 2012 he was a member of the Jury of Prix de Lausanne and in 2013 his choreographies became part of the Contemporary Repertoire of this Competition.

 

 

JUSTIN PECK

Justin Peck is a soloist and Resident Choreographer of New York City Ballet. Peck grew up in San Diego, California, where he studied at California Ballet for two years. In 2003, he began training at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet. He was named an apprentice in 2006, joined the NYCB corps de ballet in spring 2007, and was promoted to soloist in February 2013.

 

In 2009, Peck participated in the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB, and in 2011, NYCB Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins designated Peck to receive NYCI’s first year-long choreographic residency. Peck choreographed six works for New York City Ballet in two years - In Creases (2012), Year of the Rabbit (2012), Paz de la Jolla(2013), Take-Offs and Landings (NYCB MOVES, 2013), Capricious Maneuvers (2013), and Everywhere We Go (2014) - and was named Resident Choreographer, the second in the Company’s history, in July 2014. As Resident Choreographer, he has created Belles-Lettres (2014), Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes (2015), New Blood (2015), and The Most Incredible Thing (2016).

 

In addition to his choreographic work for NYCB, Peck has also created ballets for a range of companies including Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, L.A. Dance Project, the New York Choreographic Institute, the School of American Ballet, the Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival, and New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, with upcoming premieres for San Francisco Ballet and Paris Opéra Ballet.