Carlos Acosta - Diana and
Acteon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VypGB0o7CpU
Acosta was born in Havana, Cuba,
on 2 June 1973, the eleventh and last child in an impoverished Havana family whose home
was in one of the rougher quarters.
His father was a truck
driver, and his mother often suffered from health problems. Acosta grew up with
no toys, sometimes went shoeless, and did not even have a birthday cake until
he turned 23.
The streets of his
neighborhood provided plenty of entertainment, however, and he spent his time
playing soccer, break-dancing, and raiding nearby mango groves with his
friends.
He was an over-energetic
child, and Pedros Acosta, his father, felt that his youngest son would soon
land in serious trouble.
Dance training at one of the
state-funded schools, his father decided, would teach the boy discipline and
provide him with a free lunch every day.
He studied ballet at the Cuban National
Ballet School
with many influential teachers including Ramona de Sáa.
In June 1991 he received his
diploma with maximum qualifications and a gold medal. Acosta is currently
considered to be one of the most influential male dancers of our time.
Acosta, of mixed Spanish and
African heritage, came to prominence in the early 1990s while still in his
teens, and North Americna and European dance
companies began offering him lead romantic roles over the next decade.
After five years in Houston, Acosta joined London's Royal Ballet in 1998.
With his fabled grace and
athleticism, he has earned comparisons to Mikhail Baryshnikov or Rudolf Nureyev
A writer for London's Independent newspaper described
Acosta as "a dancer who slashes across space faster than anyone else, who
lacerates the air with shapes so clear and sharp they seem to throw off
sparks"
Rojo & Acosta rehearsing,
dancing and talking of R&J
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THwMG1G7gtQ
Tamara Rojo, Carlos Acosta - Swan Lake
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4u94ValkA0
Royal Ballet 2007
Carlos Acosta on creativity
in Britain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq-isXFFSnU
The Frost Interview :
Carlos Acosta: From pauper to prince
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWmmH_I9XsI
Sir David Frost travels to Havana, Cuba,
to meet the world's most celebrated male ballet dancer in his homeland.Carlos
Acosta's family was desperately poor. Pedro, his father, had fallen in love
with ballet when as a young man, he had sneaked into a cinema that was reserved
for whites to watch grainy pictures of ballet dancers. When Pedro heard that Cuba's
ballet schools offered free food, he sent his son Carlos off to ballet
school."I wanted to become a footballer ... but obviously my father had
different plans," Acosta tells Sir David.