RADIO HAVANA CUBA - September 8, 2008
TOPIC OF THE WEEK
Carlos Acosta – The Modern Day Spartacus
Carlos Acosta, or Carlos Junior, as Cubans call him, is a ballet star who has basically danced his way out of Cuba. However, he has never forgotten his training at the National Ballet School and his roots. He comes to the island whenever there is a chance. In a recent trip to Havana and in an exclusive interview with Radio Havana Cuba’s Damián Donéstevez, Acosta spoke about his dancing and filming plans, his main parts and more.
- Congratulations for the Benois de la Dance Award you recently won. It was precisely for your performance in Spartacus with the Bolshoi Theater Ballet.
What’s the importance of this award for you?
I think it’s a very respectable award. Fernando Alonso and I won it at the same time. It’s a prize that the Russians give and it’s been around for over a decade. The Russians give this award, which means that it’s very high, because, as we all know, the Russians are like the Mecca of this art and it’s something I’m always going to treasure.
- What were the challenges of Spartacus for you?
I think Spartacus is a very demanding ballet because it not only requires an intense physical training but also as a role. You need to understand the role very well and what each act represents. It’s three long acts, each act lasts like an hour, and you can see the role growing through the ballet.
At the beginning, what you see is the slave, the suffering of all slaves and the people. There is a market where they begin to separate slaves and sell them, and then the end of the First Act is the revolt against the Roman Empire. In the Second Act, we see Spartacus as we know him. We see him already with his own people, with his army, and then, later on, the Third Act is the decline of Spartacus and, ultimately, the birth of the myth.
It’s a very intense training; it’s not like any other classical repertoire, like Swan Lake that everybody knows it takes maybe a week to put together, maybe two weeks. In this one, I had to go to Moscow and stay there for over a month. I had to learn and be familiar with the music as well and train very hard with those people who already knew the role. It’s not a common classical ballet; it’s much more than that.
- You have interesting news for our readers. You are planning to film your life. Why don’t you tell me about it?
I did this book that it took me ten years to write. It’s basically an autobiography, and now there is a plan to make the movie; there is a lot of interest in the UK. I’ve been working to develop the project for a while and now it seems that we could possibly begin to film in November. And so in November and December I would come to make the film, where I’m also going to star in the movie, as well as my two nephews. And that’s the main idea. We’ll see how it all goes.
- Are there any other stars?
Well, there is a friend of mine who is also an actor named Othello Rensoli, who maybe could play the father and then there is also Cuba’s Laura de la Uz, who’s been casting and she will probably be the mother. It’s going to be a Cuban movie and I basically want to film it where it all happened, in my house in Los Pinos, eventually in Pinar del Rio. So that it’s like real life.
- So, is it going to be a co-production between the UK and Cuba?
It’s going to be an independent movie, but we are going to team up with the Cuban Film Institute, ICAIC. And that’s how we are going to do it.
- How many copies have been sold of your book No Way Home, based on your life? Has it become a best-seller?
I don’t know if it’s a best-seller but in the UK alone it sold over 15,000 copies. I mean 15,000 copies in hardback. But, you know; the paperback edition usually sells twice or three times as much as the hard cover. It’s going to be translated into German in the fall and it’s also being published in the U.S. I’m not up-to-date on what’s been going on in the U.S.
- Now, talking about the upcoming International Ballet Festival in Havana, are you bringing anything? Are there any guests with you?
I’ll try to bring the duo of Spartacus if I can, maybe with Russian ballerina Nina Katsova, with whom I always dance this part. And I also want to do a refreshing solo with the music by Jack Rae, it’s kind of like a drunk solo, which is fun.
- You like choreographer Sir Kenneth McMillan very much. Why is it like that?
Kenneth McMillan is one of the best choreographers of the recent past and, you know, I think that what he offers to the dancers is very unique. He talks about the human psychic; it’s the dark side instead of, you know, other choreographers who project the side of ballet which is more romantic, the beauty of ballet. But he was more interested in the dark side of the human being, and in all his choreography he is very dramatic in that aspect, which not only would bring a big challenge to the dancer as an actor but also physically and choreographically. It is a very well all around it ballet, he is one of the masters or geniuses of the recent past.
- You’ve danced many ballets and many parts in your life, classical, contemporary, many things. What do you think is the best or most important part in your life?
I like many, many ballets because they give one the chance to become a person you are not in real life, but I think Spartacus has been a revelation to me. I think it’s a role that suits me very well and some people would say that it’s the role of my life.
At the same time, I like McMillan’s repertoire as well. I like Mayerlin very much, which is also very, very challenging for the dancers, especially that role, because it’s mainly about the man. The man is the center of attention and there aren’t a lot of ballets where a man is the main focus; either you have to share the focus with the ballerina or the ballerina is the focus, like in Swan Lake, Giselle and all those classics. But in this one, particularly, it’s all about the man. It’s a great vehicle for the man to show off what he could offer. I think the same happens with Manon, which is also a very important role.
All these ballets are some of the best experiences I’ve had, because it’s also very classical. But the style is more neo-classical, which introduces contemporary ways and I think it’s great.
- You are already 35 years old. How many years do you have left as a classical dancer?
I’ll try to reach 40 as a classical dancer but we’ll see. It all depends on how my physical shape and abilities hold up. But I will carry on, later on, doing more conceptual projects, and maybe dancing in a more contemporary way. So that’s the idea. We’ll see.
- What about setting up your own company?
That might happen later on, but not for a while. There is a lot I want to accomplish before and then we’ll see. Once I’m not dancing anymore, maybe that will be the time to execute Plan B, which will be carry on dancing in other ways. And maybe that would be the way to set up my own company or something.
- What are your plans for the near future in England and in other parts of the world in terms of dancing?
Now I’m going back to London, to the Covent Garden. And I will star in Swan Lake and Manon and carry on for my own season and dance a little bit with my own productions. I’m planning to tour New York with a group that I’ll put together, maybe Valencia as well.
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