For release: 20 May 2003
CUBAN BALLET STAR BRINGS LATIN HEAT TO LONDON
CARLOS ACOSTA presents
Tocororo - A Cuban Tale
Sadler's Wells
Tuesday 15 - Saturday 26 July at 7.30pm & Saturday 19 & 26 July at 2.30pm
Tickets £10 - £35. Ticket Office 020 7863 8000
www.sadlerswells.com Post performance talk: Talking Dance, Thursday 17 July, with Carlos Acosta
Carlos Acosta, Cuba's breathtaking ballet star, presents his choreographic debut, Tocororo - A Cuban Tale, at Sadler's Wells from 15 - 26 July. Tocororo is a summer extravaganza blending the vibrancy of Cuban dance and music with classical ballet.
Carlos Acosta leads and choreographs seventeen dancers handpicked from the main Cuban dance companies Danza Contemporanea, the Cuban National Ballet and the Conjunto Folklorico Nacional. Tocororo is set to an original score specially composed by Miguel Núñez mixing Cuban popular and symphonic styles performed on stage by five Cuban musicians.
Tocororo tells the story of a humble boy who leaves his family and the traditions of the Cuban countryside for an urban future. Loosely based on Acosta's own life story, the young protagonist is played by his 13-year old nephew Yonah Acosta.
Carlos Acosta is the youngest of eleven children. His father was a truck driver. 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 hated ballet school and was expelled twice, but at age 13 he saw the National Ballet of Cuba perform and vowed to become a great dancer. In 1990 at the age of 16 he won the Gold Medal at the prestigious ballet competition the Prix de Lausanne and went on to guest with the Bolshoi in Moscow. Since then he has won critical acclaim and legions of fans dancing with the English National Ballet, Houston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Today, he is a guest principal for the Royal Ballet.
Carlos Acosta is acknowledged globally as one of the finest dancers of his generation and he displays an astonishing combination of technical virtuosity and raw athleticism. Tocororo combines Acosta's talent as a dancer and choreographer to bring the culture and colour of Cuba to London. Tocororo - A Cuban Tale premièred in Havana in February this year and was attended by Fidel Castro.
Note to editors
Carlos Acosta's life story and the creation and première of Tocororo in Cuba and the UK are the subject of a BBC documentary scheduled for July on BBC One. The documentary, Carlos Acosta: The Reluctant Ballet Dancer, is part of BBC One's new arts strand Imagine.
Tocororo features a 1950s Chevrolet courtesy of Havana Club, the authentic rum of Cuba.
Tocororo is the name of the lead character in the show played by Yonah Acosta and Carlos Acosta. Tocororo is also the name of the national bird of Cuba.
Tocororo - A Cuban Tale is supported by The Times Arts First and Havana Club.
<small>[ 19 June 2003, 04:33 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>