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Laura Rodríguez as Sugarplum, Yonah Acosta
as Prince Carlos Acosta's Nutcracker in Havana Wolverhampton grand ***** If you only had one word to describe Carlos Acosta’s wonderfully inventive and lively Latin take on ballet’s universally acclaimed festive favourite, it would be joyous. Acosta, who always seems to have a smile on his face, brings that happiness to the stage setting his Nutcracker not in a 19th century German upper middle class mansion but a humble home in a working class barrio in Havana – a centre of family and community. A child of Havana, Acosta does not reinvent Tchaikovsky’s classic, he merely transports it to the Caribbean adding a little Latin spice and flavour and it is a mark of the genius of Tchaikovsky that his score, perhaps the most melodic of all ballets, adapts so well in the hands of composers and arrangers Pepe Gavilondo Peón and Yasel Munoz, carrying rhythms such as mamba, salsa, jazz, a hint of bossa nova and even a conga. There is added orchestration, electric guitars for example, and a trumpet, clarinet and sax Duke Ellington would have appreciated, but we still retained that familiar sound of the celeste in The Dance of the Flowers. With Tchaikovsky sporting different rhythms to still familiar melodies we get a cornucopia of dance styles, jazz, contemporary, modern, Cuban and classic ballet and even an 19th century English import for the enslaved workforces of the region, the Maypole and its dances. We open with Drosselmeyer (the wonderful Alexander Varona) now Clara’s Uncle Elias arriving home, bearing gifts, after living in Miami where he has learned some magicn- and showing off some slick tricks.
Lead flower couple Patricia Torres and Enrique Corrales with Alexander Varona as Drosselmeyer in the rear He arrives at a modest, multigenerational Christmas party at Clara’s home, with the traditional grandparents having their . . . slow . . . moment in the limelight. Elias first transforms the family home into a mansion with sweeping staircase and larger Christmas tree then magics up three dolls. Instead of the Jack-in-a-Box, Harlequin and Columbine of the traditional ballet, we have Changó, god of thunder, lightning and dance, Oshún, goddess of love and fertility and, more familiar to European eyes, a Tin Soldier. And then there is the Nutcracker doll, dressed as one of the Mambíses, the guerrilla army pivitol in the 19th century war of independence against Spain. We end the party with a Cuban clog dance, Elias supplying everyone with Chancletas, wooden soled flip flops with strips of old tyres as straps – the Cubans in a poor country starved of trade and resources in the Castro years, were nothing if not remarkably inventive. With midnight came a darker side as the sleeping Clara (danced superbly by Laura Rodríguez) finds herself under attack from human sized and defended by the Mabíses led by the Nutcracker doll with Clara rescuing the him from defeat with a whack of a Chancleta across the chief rats’ head . . . Peter Wright’s King Rat only got whacked by a fairly soft ballet shoe. A wooden clog? These Cubans don’t mess about! The Nutcracker, the Mambí captain is transformed to a handsome prince and as snow begins to fall we end with the Snow Fairy, Winds and Snowflakes in a lovely Act 1 Finale. Act 2 sees us in the Land of Sweets, or perhaps more the Tropicana Club in Marianao to give a night club setting as the Sugar Plum Fairy's courtiers appear as support for the big act with the Spanish dance, a fiery pas de deux, the sultry, erotic Arabian dance with its, should we say, unusual silk trouser design, presumably as an inventive answer to Cuban hot summers. The Chinese dance became two martial arts fighters with some remarkably athletic moves, matched by a single figure with remarkably agile leaps in the Russian dance, while the Mirlitons became a light hearted trio. All of which brought us to the night club’s main event, the grand pas de deux between the Prince (Alejandro Veirelles) and the Sugar Plum Fairy, danced beautifully by Lauretta Summerscales. Acosta with his wealth of experience in dance has incorporated many styles and some unusual and interesting moves and steps. He also manages to choreograph the whole cast into stage filling dances which always looked fun, as if everyone was having a good time, and never looked crowded or forced. He founded his Acosta Danza in Havana to encourage and develop emerging dancers in Cuba, giving them the chance he was given with a state dance school, With this full length balled, full of joy and delight that will send you off into the night with a smile on your face, it is fair to say Acosta Dance has come of age. Nina Dunn’s set and video design is simple and effective from videos zooming us through the streets of Havana to chain mail drapes threaded with LEDs to narrow or widen the stage and always rippling likes gentle waves on a pond. The set is enhanced by Andrew Exeter’s lighting with colour and vibrancy added with Angelo Alberto’s costume design. This will never replace Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece, that was never the intent, but it is a chance to look at a familiar story from another angle and another culture. For many Cubans, including a young Carlos Acosta, Christmas was an unknown, In 1959, Cuba’s new leader, Fidel Castro declared his country was now an atheist state, Santa was banned as foreign to Cuban culture and in 1969 Christmas was also banned and celebrations with homemade trees and decorations went underground. Castro declared Christmas 1998 would be a national holiday for that year only as a gesture of goodwill for the impending visit to the island of Pope John Paul II. The ban was never reinstated. The tradition had never died, it had just hidden away, and this celebrates a Cuban Christmas emerging from the shadows full of joy and humour. To 14-01-24. Roger Clarke 13-01-25 |
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