Press Release: Carlos Acosta: Classical Selection - London Coliseum - 30 July - 4 August Full details

[Jan McNulty]

Carlos Acosta  Classical Selection

London Coliseum, St. Martin’s Lane, WC2
Tuesday 30 July - Sunday 4 August 2013
Performances: Tuesday 30 - Saturday 3 August at 7.30pm; Sunday 4 August at 3pm (no performance Thursday 1 August)
Tickets: £10 - £85
Ticket office: 020 7845 9300 www.eno.org or 0844 412 4300 www.sadlerswells.com

“Carlos is a man absolutely at the top of his game, someone to tell your children and grandchildren that you actually saw, live, on stage. Just go” Daily Telegraph

One of the greatest male dancers of his generation, Carlos Acosta returns to the London Coliseum for a limited run from Tuesday 30 July - Sunday 4 August 2013, with Classical Selection, a new show presenting highlights from Carlos’ career in celebration of the year of his 40th birthday.

Carlos Acosta has thrilled audiences throughout the world with his breathtaking performances, including principal roles in many ballets in the classical repertoire. For Classical Selection Carlos will be joined on stage by some of his past dance partners and stars of The Royal Ballet including principal dancers Marianela Nunez and Nehemiah Kish, Leanne Benjamin who recently retired from the Royal Ballet where she was a principal dancer, first soloists Ricardo Cervera and Yuhui Choe, soloists Melissa Hamilton and Eric Underwood and first artist Meaghan Grace Hinkis.

The evening’s programme includes a number of the most famous pas de deux from the classical and neo-classical canon. Extracts performed include Manon, Winter Dreams, Mayerling, Gloria and Requiem by one of the greatest ballet choreographers of the 20^th century Kenneth MacMillan.

 

Also part of the evening’s programme is an extract from George Balanchine’s ballet about the Greek god Apollo and an extract from Rubies set to score by Stravinsky. Also performed is an extract from one of Frederick Ashton’s last works, the playful, romantic, and elegant Rhapsody.

The evening’s programme also includes fellow Cuban choreographer and dancer with RAMBERT, Miguel Altunaga’s 2009 solo Memoria and extracts from Mikhail Fokine’s Diana and Actaeon and Christopher Wheeldon’s Tryst.

Classical Selection is accompanied by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Paul Murphy. MacMillan’s Gloria and Requiem is accompanied by The Pegasus Choir.

Currently performing as a Principal Guest Artist with The Royal Ballet, Acosta’s past productions have played to sell-out audiences and have been lauded by critics and audiences alike. In 2007 he won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for his performance in his 2006 programme, Carlos Acosta with Guests of The Royal Ballet. His debut novel Pig’s Foot, released on 30 October 2013, was recently named as one of the Waterstone’s Eleven, an annual list of some of the most promising debut novels.

Full programme and line-up

Winter Dreams           MacMillan                    Carlos Acosta & Marianela Nunez
Dying Swan                Fokine                         Melissa Hamilton

Rhapsody                  Ashton                         Yuhui Choe & Ricardo Cervera

Sheherzade               Folkine                        Carlos Acosta & Marianela Nunez

Manon                       MacMillan                    Leanne Benjamin & Nehemiah Kish

Diana and Actaeon    Vaganova                   Carlos Acosta & Marianela Nunez

Mayerling                  MacMillan                    Carlos Acosta, Leanne Benjamin & Ricardo Cervera

Gloria                        MacMillan                    Nehemiah Kish & Melissa Hamilton

Requiem                   MacMillan                    Carlos Acosta & Leanne Benjamin

Rubies                      Balanchine                  Ricardo Cervera & Meaghan Grace Hinkis

Apollo                       Balanchine                  Carlos Acosta & Marianela Nunez

Tryst                        Wheeldon                    Eric Underwood & Melissa Hamilton

Memoria                  Altunaga                      Carlos Acosta

 

 

Notes to editors

Biography

Carlos Acosta

Carlos Acosta was born in Havana and is the youngest of eleven children. In a bid to save the young boy from a life of gangs and petty crime his father sent him to ballet school when he was ten. Acosta was expelled from ballet school twice, but when he saw the National Ballet of Cuba perform aged 13 he vowed to become a great dancer. His prizes include the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne in 1990 and in that same year he won the Gold Medal at the Fourth Annual Competition of Ballet, Paris. He was a Principal with English National Ballet in 1991-2. He danced with National Ballet of Cuba in 1992-3, and was a Principal with Houston Ballet from 1993-8. He joined The Royal Ballet in 1998 and became a Principal Guest Artist in 2003. In 2007 he won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for his performance in his 2006 programme, Carlos Acosta with Guests of The Royal Ballet. His debut novel Pig’s Foot, released on 30 October 2013, was recently named as one of the Waterstone’s Eleven, an annual list of some of the most promising debut novels

[Bruce Wall]

While Leanne may have RETIRED from the RB, this programme for her is FAR from RETIRING !!

[toursenlair]

woohoo. so glad I have a ticket!

[Margaret]

Thanks for the information - I too am very glad I managed to get a ticket - they seem to be selling very fast!

Margaret

[Billyelliott]

We are also glad to have got 2 tickets for the Sunday they arrived in the post today ! - it's a surprise for DS birthday ! Good job he's not on the forum!

[Coated]

Wow, and I nearly didn't book. Very nice to get a little Mayerling reprise in there, I was having some withdrawal symptoms.

[alison]

I think the programme was mentioned on here a while back, wasn't it?  Certainly I saw it somewhere and decided this was a "don't miss" event.

[Don Q Fan]

This line up looks fabulous - esp as Leanne will be dancing too!  So glad I went for this and not a second Bolshoi Bayadere!  Can't wait!

[John Mallinson]

"Bleeding chunks" was the term apparently coined by the musicologist Donald Tovey to describe concerts made of pieces ripped from Wagner's operas. What Carlos Acosta is serving up here is the balletic equivalent. There will be some wonderful dancers and pieces from some wonderful ballets but count me out.

[aileen]

This programme doesn't appeal to me either. It's essentially a gala and there aren't even any interesting guests as they all come from, or have recently left, the RB. I'm sure that there will be plenty of takers though.

[Bruce Wall]

Yes, Aileen, but this IS what sells here - otherwise the sad state of the Boston Ballet sales this week would not be quite so evident as it frighteningly is.  That would not, I feel, be the case in Paris ... and certainly not in New York ... but they are both climbs where dance education has been offered to the general public for free in support of the major ballet institutions themselves for decades/generations and it has clearly paid off.  The effects of a greater greed - albeit housed within the walls of greater subsidy it is true (well, in the US reflection at least) - and a lack of substantive affordable educational outreach access in support of the fundamental creative work itself - is here (e.g., in the UK) made clear.  If the case were to be otherwise the demand for a greater diversity - and support thereof - would be more evident.  It is, I think, THIS that O'Hare is bravely trying to alter with his commitment to the RB's creative core as his regime's mainstay.  Not before time I think.  I pray he is able to see it through ... and, with luck on his side, that it might be a success to benefit us all.    

Edited July 5, 2013 by Meunier

[MAB]

If ticket sales are poor I think it is more down to the absolute flood of companies to London this year.  A great deal of choice but I dare say most people (and the regular London ballet audience isn't that large) can't get to everything and in the present economic climate being able to afford to go to the ballet is a problem for many people.

[capybara]

The added problem for the Boston Ballet this week is that many regular ballet-goers are preoccupied with the Ballet School Shows (and Wimbledon Tennis). 

 

For the same reasons, I suspect, the excellent MasterClass on Petrushka mounted by ENB last night was less well-attended than is usually the case for such events.

[aileen]

Yes, the tennis has certainly influenced my ballet attendances this week. I was sorry to miss the ENB masterclass last night. The audience in the upper circle last night was respectable. I don't know what it was like in the rest of the auditorium. There was some very heavy discounting of tickets though. Someone tweeted that she had picked up a £70 ticket for £15. I do feel that these overseas companies are unwise charging more than the normal ENB prices at the Coliseum. The cheapest decent seats in the balcony were £25 and unexceptional seats in the upper circle were £50.

[Ann Williams]

'...>there aren't even any interesting guests as they all come from, or have recently left, the RB<...'

 

Yes, Aileen - odd that there are no ENB dancers in the line-up, given that their new(ish) AD has often expressed her admiration for Carlos!  Maybe the dates clash with something they're doing elsewhere - does anyone here know?  A more serious worry to me, though, would be that not all of those promised starry names will be able to perform on the night, something which frequently happens with major international galas. This is actually the main reason I've long given up booking for them.

[alison]

Well, the tennis has been finishing so early that I can't honestly say it's affected my ballet attendance this week (and Wimbledon have been struggling to schedule anything in the early evenings, despite all the rain delays we've had).  Add that to the poor quality of a lot of the matches ...

[alison]

Yes, Aileen - odd that there are no ENB dancers in the line-up, given that their new(ish) AD has often expressed her admiration for Carlos!  Maybe the dates clash with something they're doing elsewhere - does anyone here know?  A more serious worry to me, though, would be that not all of those promised starry names will be able to perform on the night, something which frequently happens with major international galas. This is actually the main reason I've long given up booking for them.

 

Well, since the dancers are all local, hopefully there will be less in the way of withdrawals than there will be with the average gala.  And maybe I should point out to us spoiled Londoners that there are lots of people who would give their eye teeth for the opportunity to see dancers of this quality.

[alison]

Not to mention, bearing in mind the content of some of Acosta's previous shows, *rep* of that quality.

[aileen]

My point is that *I* personally can see RB dancers all through the year and I don't need to go to this gala to see them. It's not therefore of interest to me and I don't like the gala format anyway. I appreciate that there are many people who can only see the RB occasionally for whom this is a great opportunity to see several RB and ex-RB dancers in one evening. It just doesn't appeal to me.

[Billyelliott]

Can anyone tell me how long the performance is likely to be ?

[alison]

Last night, it came in at a little under 2 1/2 hours.

[alison]

Just re-read the PR: not entirely sure how The Dying Swan and Tryst fit in as highlights of Carlos' career, but never mind

[Jan McNulty]

Just re-read the PR: not entirely sure how The Dying Swan and Tryst fit in as highlights of Carlos' career, but never mind

 

Perhaps he did a stint in The Trocks????

[alison]

I've just moved a few feedback posts (including one of mine - not even we Moderators are immune! :blush: ) into the performance thread.  Please keep this one for any further information about the season.