Carlos Acosta

Carlos was born in Cuba in 1973. He started dancing at the insistence of his father as a means of occupying his spare time. He began dancing at the National Ballet School of Cuba, Havana, when he was ten. In June 1991 he received his diploma with maximum qualifications and a gold medal.

He has won numerous awards ranging from the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne (January 1990), Grand Prix and Gold Medal at the Fourth Annual Competition of Ballet in Paris (November 1990), and the Grand Prix in the third Juvenile Competition of Dance (June 1991) and the International Critics Prize from the Chilean dance critics.

From 1989 to 1991 he performed throughout the world guesting with many other companies including ballet companies in Italy, Mexico and Venezuela. In the 1991/92 season he was invited to dance with the English National Ballet in London and made his debut in the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor and also appeared as the Prince in Ben Stevenson’s The Nutcracker and Cinderella, partnering Eva Evdokimova and Ludmilla Semenyaka.

From 1992 to 1993 he danced as a member of the National Ballet of Cuba and October 1993 and September 1994 he toured with the company to Madrid, Spain where he danced the principal roles in Giselle, Don Quixote and Swan Lake.

In November 1993 he was invited to join the Houston Ballet as a principal dancer where he made his American stage debut as the Prince in Stevenson’s The Nutcracker. Following this his repertory with the Houston Ballet included Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Solor in the third act of La Bayadère, Basilio in Don Quixote, Stevenson’s Britten Pas de deux, the male lead in Harald Lander’s Etudes, and Jiri Kylian’s Symphony in D.

Acosta made his first appearance with The Royal Ballet in William Forsythe’s In the middle, somewhat elevated in October 1998 and subsequently appeared as Jean de Brienne in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Raymonda Act III, Colas in Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, Siegfried in Swan Lake and Actaeon in the Diana & Actaeon Pas de deux.

His MacMillan repertory includes The Brother in Kenneth MacMillan’s My Brother, My Sisters, Solo Boy in Gloria, Requiem, Des Grieux in MacMillan’s Manon, the Messenger of Death in Song of the Earth and Crown Prince Rudolf in Mayerling. Other roles include Albrecht in Peter Wright’s production of Giselle, the Principal Boy in Rhapsody, Nacho Duato’s Remanso, The Prince in Peter Wright’s production of The Nutcracker, Franz in Ninette de Valois’ production of Coppélia, Nijinsky’s L’Après-midi d’un faune, the Boy with Matted Hair in Anthoy Tudor’s Shadowplay, Basilio in Nureyev’s Don Quixote, the Spectre in Mikhail Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose, George Balanchine’s Apollo, The Four Temperaments title role in his The Prodigal Son and Ashton’s Voices of Spring and Rhapsody.

In the 2005/2006 Season he made his debut as Brighella in Glen Tetley’s Pierrot Lunaire, the male role in Jerome Robbins’s Afternoon of a Faun and the title role in MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet.

He has created roles in Ashley Page’s Hidden Variables, William Tuckett’s 3:4 and Kim Brandstrup’s Rushes – Fragments of a Lost Story.

Television performances include two live BBC broadcasts from The Royal Opera House; the Opening Celebration in December 1999 when Acosta performed the Man’s Solo in Le Corsaire, February 2000 in the role of Franz in Ninette de Valois’ Coppélia, Colas in the BBC2 broadcast of La Fille mal gardée in February 2005 and Voices of Spring in December 2004. He was also featured in the BBC documentary Imagine in June 2003. He has brought his own production, Tocororo, to Sadler’s Wells two years running and his autobiography No Way Home is published by Harper Collins.

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