Nutcracker in Havana: “Authentic but different” promises Carlos Acosta

At the beginning of November, Carlos Acosta brings his Cuban-flavoured re-imagining of The Nutcracker to the stage as Acosta Danza premiere Nutcracker in Havana at the Norwich Theatre Royal before it tours nationwide. David Mead met recently with the choreographer-director, and video projection and set designer Nina Dunn, to talk about the new production.

Christmas in the ballet world means The Nutcracker. Settings tend to reflect where they are staged. In Britain, Edwardian or Victorian times are favourites. Russian Nutcrackers tend to be just that. Christopher Wheeldon’s for The Joffrey Ballet is set around the World’s Fair of 1893 Chicago. In New York you’ll find a Harlem Nutcracker. So, for a Cuban company, why not a Cuban Nutcracker? And now there is one!

Carlos Acosta in Havana
Photo Eduardo Lara

Perhaps that’s not surprising when you consider that Christmas was banned in the country in 1969, the prohibition on celebration only lifted in 1997 ahead of Pope John Paul II’s visit the following year. Indeed, Carlos Acosta says that it was only when he started to dance with companies overseas after winning the Gold Medal at the Prix De Lausanne in 1990 that he really found out what Christmas was.

Even today, he says, “It’s a very complicated day for us because we have seen Christmas so many times from afar through the lens of television and other ways. We sort of try to make up what it is. But we haven’t grown up with the mythology about it. We are a Catholic country, and we have all the Spanish tradition, but it is a completely different Christmas from in America or probably anywhere in the West.”

Laura Rodríguez and Alejandro Silva rehearse Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

Acosta is clearly excited about the new production. Featuring dancers from Acosta Danza and the recently formed Acosta Danza Yunior, he promises that his Cuban take on the story will have ballet at its core, but with folk traditions of the island fused and woven into it.

He says that he didn’t particularly have it in his mind to do a Nutcracker but having started to position narrative ballets such as Carmen into Acosta Danza’s repertoire, in part as a way of bringing in audiences, he was thinking what could be next.

“I think Nutcracker is a show that can potentially give us many dates. That’s an important factor that I need to consider. We rely on touring. It’s usually a very heavy show that normally stays in one place. You do it in that place three, four weeks. But, I thought, if you could devise a productionthat’s easy to get in and out, there are a lot of mid-scale venues that it could go to, venues who never have a top-quality Nutcracker.”

Acosta Danza rehearse Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

The idea started to take shape during discussions Acosta was having with Norwich Theatre who invested in the revival of On Before during the pandemic.

“Once we said, OK, let’s do it, the question was, ‘What kind of Nutcracker will be?’ I wanted to place it in Cuba for sure to make it different from any others. I also wanted to go beyond that by adapting the music and bringing in Cuban rhythms.”

To that end, he approached composer, Pepe Gavilondo Peón, who has worked with Acosta Danza for many years. “Little by little we began to put the pieces together; to try to navigate a road that feels different but also authentic.”

Acosta Danza rehearse Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

Then, he wondered what else he could do. “You know, after the snow scene, Clara and the Nutcracker go to the Land of the Sweets. People have used all sorts of ways to get them there. I said, ‘Why don’t we bring one of those classic cars?’ It’s not real but a replica built for us. It’s a ‘57 Corvette, with lights and things like that.”

While describing the production as not having a deep plot and being “just about the magic of the play,” he explains that his Drosselmeyer is an uncle who left for Miami thirty years ago but who returns to Havana looking for his birthplace. “He’s a sort of magical character. He transforms this humble house in the countryside into a mansion. Then gives everyone amazing outfits.”

Acosta describes the production as ‘compact.’ “There are about 26 dancers. They do multiple things.” He concedes with most performing every night, it will be hard work. “But it’s not very hard dance. It’s manageable energy wise.”

Acosta Danza rehearse a dance with wooden sandals for Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

He explains that his approach to choreography is a fusion in which classical ballet is the main element but with other things like contemporary and folk then incorporated. Among the latter in Nutcracker in Havana are wooden sandals. “A bit like flip-flops. We dance with them. They make a noise kind of like tap dancing.” But the big pas de deux remain absolutely classical, Acosta assures. “Classical is my base.”

In the dream scene, Acosta explains that the Nutcracker doll is a Mambi, a Cuban soldier who fought against the Spanish in the Cuban War of Independence and who wears a traditional Mambise costume. “He has a yarey hat and a Cuban sword, which looks like a machete, in his hand. That’s my Nutcracker, with the Cuban flag. Then he turns into a prince.”

As with most British productions, Clara will be played by an adult. “She dances on pointe. She’s the one who dances the pas de deux with the Prince in the snow, and then does the Sugar Plum at the end of the second act. But our version also has a Snow Fairy who does a pas de deux with the Cavalier.”

Laura Rodríguez and Alejandro Silva rehearse Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

That thirty-year ban on Christmas in Cuba is really important for the work says video projection and set designer Nina Dunn, perhaps best known to UK ballet audiences for her work on Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Don Quixote. “Clara is not seeing Christmas through new eyes; she’s never seen Christmas before. And not only is the Land of Sweets offering her treats, they are literally beyond her imagination because of the travel, import and other constraints within Cuba. So, experiencing these otherworldly delights is that much more poignant.

Dunn explains how, in her initial conversations with Acosta, they talked about the importance of the ballet’s journeys and how projection can really help with those and the transformations.

“After that came considerations about the space, at which point it was decided that I would take that element on as well because it was going to be simple and the projection was going to do the sort of heavy lifting within the visual storytelling. I’m working very closely with lighting designer Andrew Exeter in the guise of a sort of co-scenography because I think everything needs to all play together.”

Acosta Danza rehearse Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

“I suppose you could say that Carlos is an animator of people, I’m an animator of things and spaces. The most pleasing thing is when a projected image interacts with physical space and dance, and is able to be flexible and choreographed in tandem with them. I’ve really enjoyed that sort of choreographic collaboration on this work. I’ve worked with Carlos a bit before but I’ve never been had such great responsibility for the scenography.”

Technically, Dunn explains that the projections are all done using a 3-D game engine with everything coded on time. “It’s all really precise and means it’s very important that everyone is right on the music.”

She reveals that, among many things to look out for, are farm wire and beer cans as improvised Christmas decorations. Essential since no Cuban, no foreign, and especially no American representations of the festive season were allowed. “Christmas trees had to be palm trees. So, our forest is a palm forest. And were putting in Havana covered in snow. They’re all really nice little kind of things that hopefully will remind people how different this experience is for Clara. We’re looking at a stylization that borrows from classic Cuban film posters. Again, another layer that will remind people this is a very different space.”

Brandy Martínez (left) and Leandro Fernández rehearse Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

To create as much space as possible for the dance, Dunn has devised chain curtains that can be projected onto. “They move really beautifully and sound rather good when we want them to. We can reconfigure the space for journeys, they can act as pauses, and they also cheekily remind me of the kind of fly curtains that you get in the doorways in hot countries.” Those same curtains also allow video to be used to show costume and other detail that the audience would likely otherwise miss, she adds.

“But for all the options one could take, you’ve got to always put ballet at the centre of it. And if you have too much else going on or clutter the stage too much, visually or physically, then you’re not going to let the ballet shine. I really think we have struck the right balance.”

Acosta Danza rehearse Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

In terms of period, much of the ballet is set in the 1950s. “It’s the Havana that everyone in the world remembers,” says Acosta. “The Havana of Nat King Cole and Sinatra. The infamous mafia era as well. We had a Formula 1 grand prix. Fangio came many times before he got kidnapped in 1958. Also, we had a very major event for horse racing. Everything happened in Havana. It was more advanced than Spain in many ways. It was a very culturally active place. Havana led the way in many ways.”

While Tchaikovsky’s well-known score is being reimagined, reinterpreted, Acosta assures that it still has all the familiar melodies. “The orchestration is different because it’s not a large orchestra, and the instrumental choices give it this Latin, Cuban sound. You will still recognise it as Tchaikovsky, but projecting it in a different light.”

Chay Deivis and Amisaday Nara rehearse Nutcracker in Havana
Photo Tatum Reid

It should be great fun, he believes. “It was quite a big job for me to begin with, to get used to. The original score is quite a difficult act to follow. Again, it’s navigating a way that feels different, whatever that means. Being different but still authentic is the key for me even though that can be very risky.”

Acosta admits that he would love to take Nutcracker in Havana home but there are difficulties, not least getting a venue. He explains that there are presently only two theatres working in Havana. One, the 700-seat Teatro Martí is too small. The other, the much larger Gran Teatro, is heavily in demand, not least for ballet. “And you can’t just go for a week of shows because of all the technical stuff that’s needed. But I think we will get to go eventually. And I would love to. Just not at the moment.”

Returning to touring generally, Acosta emphasises it is really important to go to places where his company can “catch the imagination of people who don’t know anything about a ballet or dance. You need to try to speak to them. For the whole salvation of the art. We rely on having theatres full. The numbers have to add otherwise you just won’t have new ballets. Imagine that.”

Carlos Acosta and dancers of Acosta Danza
Photo Tutum Reid

For Nutcracker in Havana, he believes that you really don’t need to know anything about ballet to appreciate it. “You don’t need to have seen ballet before. You certainly don’t need to have seen a traditional Nutcracker before. It pulls from different worlds; from the Latin world, from ballet, from contemporary. It’s a collision, but one that I think works.”

A co-production between Acosta Danza, Norwich Theatre and Valid Productions, Nutcracker in Havana premieres at the Theatre Royal, Norwich from November 1-3, 2024.

It will then tour to Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury; Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury; Richmond Theatre; Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London; New Victoria Theatre, Woking; Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton; Milton Keynes Theatre; and The Lowry in Salford.