Carlos Acosta is set to delight audiences at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre next month when his critically acclaimed Cuban dance company, Acosta Danza, inject some Latin American passion into a much-loved family favourite. What’s On finds out more about brand-new show Nutcracker In Havana...

After a dancing and directing career spanning more than 30 years, Carlos Acosta has performed in and watched more than his fair share of productions of Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet The Nutcracker. He has now created his own version - but it is a Nutcracker with a difference.

Nutcracker In Havana is set in Carlos’ home city, features a blend of different dance styles and boasts a new Caribbean orchestration of the famous score.

The show, which visits Wolverhampton next month, is performed by more than 20 dancers from Acosta Danza, the company Carlos founded in Havana in 2016.

“I wanted to bring Acosta Danza the spectacle of a full-scale ballet,” he says. “I thought that The Nutcracker makes sense because I could do something Cuban that would be different from the usual Nutcracker. 

“I could place the story in Cuba, which paves the way for me to incorporate Cuban folk dance and music but at the same time keep it classical. It’s a very important title and has been created to tour beyond just the largest theatres, to audiences in places that don’t normally get the benefit of having a Nutcracker.”

The show keeps the essential elements of the traditional story but re-invents it, setting the tale in a different context. It also features a score orchestrated by Cuban composer Pepe Gavilondo and including traditional Caribbean musical instruments.

“Everything is recognised from the original; the dance of the adults, the fight, the dance of the mirlitons, the humour - all those elements are going to be there. Basically it’s The Nutcracker but in Havana. There’s going to be snow in Havana! I’m looking forward to that, as it never snows in Havana.

“For the music there is calypso, jazz, all kinds of rhythms which heavily rely on brass and electric guitars. It speaks about Cuban music.

“The audience is going to get a show that feels different, authentic and funny - there’s a lot of humour. They will see Tchaikovsky in a new light; they will never have heard Tchaikovsky like this. They will follow the story, which is fun, but they will see great dancing as well - all forms of dancing, from Cuban folk, contemporary and ballet, at the highest level.”

The production brings together elements of Cuban folk dance with the carnival spirit of the Caribbean.

And thanks to Carlos’ own experience of dancing top-level ballet, and his role as director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, he also understands the benefits of classical technique.

“The classical ballets like The Nutcracker are  the ultimate hard dance, in the sense of physicality and being so specific. It’s the base for the other dance forms. Ballet is about strength, it’s about finesse, it’s about posture, and I wanted to incorporate all of this into the company from the word go. 

“If you really want a skilled ballet dancer in the company, then you have to incorporate that type of repertoire. Acosta Danza is still very much a contemporary company, but I’m also very keen to incorporate classical and neo-classical, so that the company grows up with that kind of training.”

Nutcracker In Havana is a co-production with Norwich Theatre and Valid Productions. The show premiered last month at Norwich Theatre, where Stephen Crocker is chief executive & creative director...   

“Throughout this process, we’ve been continuously working on creating a show that reflects Carlos’ artistic quality, has broad appeal, and connects in different ways,” says Stephen. “The connection to the audience, and making a Nutcracker which is fresh and will bring new audiences into the theatre, is something which is really valuable. We are marrying professional dance standards and high-quality production values.”

Carlos and the producers worked on the show with Acosta Danza in Havana. The experience of being in the city in which the story is set very much cemented the creative team’s feeling that the score needed to be adapted.

“The music is something that we hit upon when we were out in Cuba,” says Stephen. “Havana is such a noisy city; the sound is constant, whether it’s cars or music, and it was clear to us that this choreography needed its own musical language in order to make it soar. 

“So we hit upon the notion of recording a Cuban version of the score, which includes some traditional instruments - to get the harmony and melody across - but also some sounds of Havana. So you’ve got some world instruments in there and some voices tracked into it, some percussive stuff like the occasional castanet - the sounds of that place.

“Carlos’ studio in Havana is amazing. It’s glass-fronted, and you see all those old Chevrolets going by and people going about their business. So we thought, we need to create this soundscape for the audience, so that when they sit in their seat, it’s all-encompassing.”

The team were keen to ensure the show could play mid-scale theatres, many of which might struggle to host the typical grand-scale classical ballets.

“All the versions of The Nutcracker I’ve ever seen sit in a particular narrative place,” Stephen continues.

“It’s kind of European, it’s opulent, it’s huge - and on a practical level, so few of them can tour this country because they are so big.

“I feel very passionately about getting the best work out as widely as possible, so I wanted a Nutcracker that could tour to venues that don’t usually get that type of ballet. It’s great that we can take that show out and reclaim the joy of that story and witness some of the very best dancing.”

And the team hope that Wolverhampton audiences find something new to enjoy in Nutcracker In Havana.

“I want people to be surprised by what they see,” says Carlos. “I hope they will experience something different, with joy and fun, and I hope that they will want to come back every year to give this production a chance.”

Feature by Diane Parkes

Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker In Havana shows at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre on Monday 13 & Tuesday 14 January