Carlos Acosta:Premieres Plus – The Lowry, Salford
Choreography: Will Tuckett, Miguel Altunaga, Yuri Yanowsky, Russell Maliphant, Kim Brandstrup, Simon Elliott, Edwaard Liang, Carlos Acosta, George Céspedes and Zenaida Yanowsky
Conceived and Directed: Carlos Acosta
Reviewer: Peter Jacobs
The Public Reviews Rating: 
Carlos Acosta is one of the leading male dancers of his generation. Having grown up in Cuba, where he studied at the National Ballet School, he came to the UK in 1991 to become Principal with ENB, went to star at the Houston Ballet and returned to become Principal Guest Artist at the Royal Ballet in 2003. He has performed as principal guest artist with all the leading ballet companies around the world. He is still in huge demand for classical leading roles. In recent years he has put together mixed programmes focusing especially on Cuban choreographers. Premieres Plus is a revised version of Premieres, a show he created last year.
Premieres Plus is a packed programme of 9 short pieces by ten choreographers, including Acosta himself and fellow dancer Zenaida Yanowsky. Strangely, despite this, it manages not to be hugely varied show. Opening piece, the Royal Ballet’s Will Tuckett’s On Before introduces a number of elements that will become increasing familiar as the show progresses – Chris Davey’s darkly dramatic lighting with intense triangular downward pools of light; the choir wandering the stage with gently choreographed purpose (they do this several times but do not open their mouths to sing until the ninth piece); lightly drifting smoke; Acosta in simple black costume, Yanowsky in white. On Before was originally choreographed for Yanowsky and William Trevett for the Ballet Boyz. Now revised for Acosta, it is Yanowsky who shines through the quietly engaging interplay and appealing lifts and it is hard to imagine Trevett settling for such low-key and conventional partnering as Acosta provides in support. It’s a nice piece but having expected to see extraordinary male dancing it left a slightly flat feeling. Second piece, Miguel Altunaga’s Memoria was a solo by Acosta and whilst fluid and with a certain muscular strength to it was a largely static piece anchored to its lighting plan; and Acosta’s street dance-inspired moves were less than overwhelming, the hints of capoeira seeming oddly adrift without a partner. Third piece, Sirin, created for Zenaida by her brother Yuri Yanowsky, was another solo that benefited from her broken, insectoid elegance and intense connection with the abstract narrative. Final piece of the first half was another solo by Acosta, Russell Maliphant’s magnificent Two. Again a piece statically anchored by lighting, Two is a slow burner that builds to a vivid and impressive climax, Acosta’s hands and feet a whirling blur as they slice through and capture the intense light that almost invisibly surrounds the dark pool of light within the darker stage that Acosta inhabits.
The second half of Premieres Plus saw Zenaida dance beautifully to Kim Brandstrup’s Footnote to Ashton, the stage aglow with candles; set to Handel arias, the piece melds a classical-style narrative with contemporary movement, full of beautiful, elegant hesitancy and yearning expressiveness. The best of the evening so far. Next is a short, oddly familiar solo as Acosta rejoins Zenaida and the milling choir as full-stage screens drop and the dancers are replaced by Simon Elliott’s slow-motion film Falling Deep Inside, which is wonderfully projected. Next up was Sight Unseen, which saw Acosta forego his usual black (he joined Zenaida in white). Set to haunting music by the Georgian Tsinandali Choir and Michael Convertino, this work by Edwaard Liang saw Acosta and Yanowsky in a face-off divided by a vivid line of white light. Again, Yanowsky’s expressive physicality seemed to outmatch Acosta’s muscular blankness. The piece ended uncertainly – the audience not sure whether to applaud or not – and went straight into Hand Duets, choreographed by Acosta himself and young Cuban dancer-choreographer George Céspedes. Although with new music by Cuban Omar Puente, this piece seemed naggingly similar to much of the rest of the programme, almost dictated rather than illuminated by the lighting design. Finally, with Acosta and Yanowsky’s O Magnum Mysterium the choir – the Northern Lights Choir for the Lowry dates – were allowed to stop wandering the stage and to sing. Dramatically lit, their interpretation of Morten Lauridsen’s choral music began with some reasonably confident humming but as it built it became clear that they were not in great voice around the upper register and as Yanowsky twirled prettily and yearningly and Acosta sat there unmoving on a box for most of the piece, I wondered what all the fuss was about – and why most of the audience seemed to have enjoyed it so much.
Reviewed on the 25th July 2011
Tags: Ballet, Carlos Acosta, Dance, Edwaard Liang, George Céspedes, Kim Brandstrup, Miguel Altunaga, Northern Lights Choir, Omar Puente, Premieres Plus, Russell Maliphant, Salford, Simon Elliott, The Lowry, Will Tuckett, Yuri Yanowsky, Zenaida Yanowsky
2:19 am on July 26th, 2011
After seeing the original production in London i was disappointed will the lack of drive and focus of the dancing. It was all very beautiful but the story lacked definition and direction.
After this new improved version at the Lowry I was left with a heavy sadness for the demise of the relationship enacted on stage and my spine tingled from listening to a choir who clearly understood the true meaning of O Magnum Mysterium.
11:16 am on July 26th, 2011
For what will be the first and last time I see Carlos Acosta on-stage, last night’s experience will count as one of the more disappointing dance performances I’ve yet to witness….such as shame, really.
The “star” of the show seemed to do little more than strike poses for about 30 minutes, some of which reminiscent of yogic asanas, others with a more “tai-chi” or “body-building” feel….which is probably what some would describe as “fusion”…
Thankfully, Zenaida Yanowski was indeed a joy to watch, but even my favourite piece of choreography, Maliphant’s Two, didn’t redeem the show for me, as it did not come close to an utterly mesmerising rendition of the same piece by Sylvie Guillem’ on that very stage a couple of years ago.
And to finish with a piece where the dancers just disappear and sit around amidst members of a not-quite-good-enough choir was quite the anti-climax… I could think of better ways to use £50- on an evening.
8:52 pm on July 26th, 2011
I absolutely agree with the previous 2 reviewers. I wasted almost £50. I wanted to see Carlos dance and am left wondering if he is having the last laugh. A truly disappointing evening.
12:38 am on July 27th, 2011
It does not always pay to be a purist – life cam be so dull
great singing from The Northern Lights
great dancing from Carlos and Zen
Well Satisfied!
11:21 pm on July 27th, 2011
My first experience of seeing Carlos was far from the disappointment described by previous reviewers. I was spellbound the whole evening. Each dance found its own heartstring to tug on, but for me the very best came at the end: the beauty of Zenaida’s movements; Carlos’s still form; and the gorgeous sounds from Northern Lights, made O Magnum Mysterium unforgetable. The idea of using local amateur voices was a great one, and to have managed to give such a moving and professional performance was a tremendous achievement to those involved and an enormous tribute to the work of Jeff Borradaile.