Green Shoots: Acosta Danza Yunior makes a vibrant UK debut

MAST Mayflower Studios, Southampton
September 19, 2024

In early 2023, Carlos Acosta established BRB2 as a vehicle for helping talented dancers transition from training into jobs at Birmingham Royal Ballet and elsewhere. Later the same year, he did something similar for Acosta Danza, setting up Acosta Danza Yunior, in this case a three-year programme for dancers aged 18-21 that acts as a bridge between the Acosta Danza Academy and the company.

In time, the aim is that Acosta Danza Yunior will develop its own repertory; one that, while never forgetting classical ballet, particularly aims to celebrate Cuban culture through choreography influenced by modern Cuban dance and the island’s folk and popular dance.

Having premiered in Havana in January this year, the company made its UK debut in Southampton with its appropriately titled Green Shoots programme. The dancers are outstanding. All aged 18 to 21, they brought plenty youthful energy and zest to the stage, giving new life to the evening’s two previously existing works as they did so. But standing out equally strongly was the wonderful, always fluid partnering, and the depth of emotion created in works that all very much showed the dancers as real people with real feelings.

The opening Fuga (Fugue) by Susana Pous, Spanish director and choreographer of Havana-based contemporary dance company, MiCompañia, was created specially for the new ensemble.

For six dancers and taking place entirely on what appears to be a square of grass, it’s about how that shared space becomes too small, about the need to say goodbye, to escape and take flight. To original music by Pepe Gavilondo, the sense of wanting to leave is ever-present. The complex choreography is full of partnerwork that requires, and got, perfect timing. Dancers reach and stretch out into the surrounding void but are always hauled back by the others. But one by one they do leave, sometimes almost without you noticing. Except there’s always a memory. It was a cracking start.

Nosotros (Us), by Beatriz García and Raúl Reinoso, was seen recently when performed by García and Carlos Acosta himself as part of the latter’s On Before. The most classically balletic piece of the evening, albeit in a very contemporary way, it’s about the difficulties of relationships, about disagreements and frustrations, but also about those moments when things really come together, and the glow that love brings.

It was beautifully danced by Aniel Pazos, who last year thrilled in the Prix de Lausanne Choreographic Project led by Goyo Montero, and Cynthia Laffertté. Booth oozed feeling, Laffertté being particularly impressive in a long solo, full of dramatic charge, when in a moment of loneliness, emptiness and desperation.

Seen on Acosta Danza’s 2022 UK tour, Norge Cedeño and Thais Suárez’s Hybrid (Híbrido) is a dance for five couples that opens in what appears to be a totalitarian society, one dancer quite literally trapped in ropes. It’s a bleak place, Yaron Abulafia’s stage design and lighting, and Celia Ledón’s grey and red futuristic costumes, combining with the writhing movement to give it an unreal, sci-fi feel.

There is a narrative thread inspired by the myth of Sisyphus, although easier is to see aspects of the Cuban story into the work, the complexities and realities of the struggle of a nation and its people. What we certainly see is the dancers standing up to this strange world and their longing for independence, liberation and happiness.

Sure enough, Hybrid takes us from darkness to light. Jenny Peña and Randy Araujo’s industrial music is slowly replaced by a folk beat that feeds into the choreography, the dance becoming freer and upbeat. Ledón’s bold reds and oranges, so powerful as symbols of oppression in the opening become colours of joy in a finale of boundless energy.

Acosta has previously expressed a hope that the new junior company will be a place for artists “to grow, excel, experiment and mature.” Green shoots do need caring for, but the company and its dancers look to be in safe hands. Already collaborating with young choreographers and important Cuban musicians and composers, Acosta Danza Yunior is off to a flying start.

Acosta Danza Yunior are at MAST Studios, Southampton to September 21, 2024, before moving on to Lighthouse, Poole on September 26 & 27.