In this new work from the celebrated Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance. Emerging from the 17th and 18th Centuries the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.
A brand-new premiere from Andonis Foniadakis journeys to the rhythmic heart of Baroque. Set to a live performance of Esteban Sallas’ Salve Regina, the piece explores the classic chaconne looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.
Closing the programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that was originally created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers. Classical in sound and contemporary in heart, this is mesmerising piece not to be missed.
Review by Stephen Gilchrist.
Sometimes, you can’t get too much of a good thing and the programme delivered at Sadler’s Wells by Carlos Acosta is definitely a good thing. It is not often that I get tearful at the beauty of a performance, but this was one such evening. There was no narrative, just pure beauty in every aspect of the production.
Acosta Danza is a contemporary and classical dance company based in Havana, Cuba, founded in 2015 by the internationally renowned ballet dancer. The object is to cultivate young Cuban dance talent and showcase Cuban musical and cultural heritage on a global stage. It fuses classical ballet, contemporary dance, and traditional Cuban folkloric and popular dance styles. Acosta himself was the youngest ever principal dancer at the English National Ballet when he joined it at the age of 18.
This double bill consisted of two abstract pieces, each choreographed to baroque composition often segueing into lively, thumping Cuban beats.
It is no coincidence that the first piece ‘Pearls’ is so named as the word baroque comes from the Portuguese word meaning a “misshapen pearl”.
Set to live music composed by Julien Tarride and founded on Salve Regina by Esteban Salas, an 18th-century Cuban composer of religious music, the choreography by Andonis Foniadakis in a world premiere, is an orgy of hands, arms legs and changing shapes, entanglements, and often acrobatic dance. The detail in the design of individual movement is phenomenal. The music has the style of a chaconne, a style favoured by the baroque composers and featuring continuous variations built over a repeated brief harmonic progression.
The finale leading to a ‘petite mort’, in modern usage a euphemism for the sensation of orgasm, is a riveting, fast, furious and thrilling explosion of dance to Cuban beats & rhythms. The choreography, its execution, and the score blended to produce an exquisite jewel of a ballet.
The lighting by Nicolas Fischtel moves, changes shapes and reshapes geometrically with the dance, creating laser like rectangular performance areas on the stage.
After the interval, came ‘Chacona’ by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero. It was created in 2011 for Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett. It was set to the final movement of Bach‘s Partita No.2 in D Minor, again played live and brilliantly so on piano, guitar and violin.
The piece is designed for 16 dancers, again, as an ensemble shape shifting to sometime geometric patterns, building walls, barriers separating one partner of a pas de deux from the other. There is an intense and focussed synchronicity in the ensemble. It is physically demanding though often funereal in the choreographic setting, and suitably so since many have claimed it was a tombeau (a musical memorial) written in grief for Bach‘s first wife, Maria Barbara Bach.
The evening was thrilling, hypnotic, and sensational proving yet again, you cannot have too much of Carlos Acosta’s productive brilliance.
Cast
Frank Isaac
Alexander Arias
Aniel Pazos
Ernesto Muñoz
Rolando Dieguez
Miguel Gomez
Amado Mancebo
Thalía Cardín
Melisa Moreda
Daniella Urgelles
Cynthia Laffertte
Ofelia Rodríguez
Wendy Elizabeth
Carolina Monteagudo
María del Carmen Pantoja
Creative Team
Pearls
Choreography: Andonis Foniadakis
Music: Esteban Sallas
Musical composition/arrangement: Julien Tarride
Costumes: Anastasios Tassos Sofroniou
Lighting: Nicolas Fischtel
Stager: Pierre Magendie
Chacona
Choreography & set design: Goyo Montero
Music: J.S. Bach — Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor
Costumes: Verena Hemmerlein & Goyo Montero
Lighting: Goyo Montero & Nicolas Fischtel
Stagers: Ivan Delgado del Rio & Carlos Lazaro
Musicians
Pepe Gavilondo
Ezo Sarici
Adrian Aguiar
Free sheet available: here
Tickets: click here