Carlos Acosta may be best-known to local audiences these days as director of Birmingham Royal Ballet but in 2015 he founded a different dance company in his home country of Cuba – Acosta Danza, and for the past ten years they have been developing and touring work with a Caribbean flavour.

Now Acosta Danza is touring the UK with Acosta’s new full-length ballet, a Cuban re-telling of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. And what a re-telling this is.

Acosta knows the original inside and out, having danced it for decades, and his knowledge and love for the piece is evident throughout. Setting the work in Havana is no gimmick, it gives a different life and energy to the work filling it with the warmth and humour of the Caribbean.

One of the most significant alterations is a new orchestration by Pepe Gavilondo Peón which brings in elements of traditional Cuban music including son, salsa, mambo and even the conga. Using a host of traditional instruments, it breathes a new life to Tchaikovsky’s wonderful score emphasizing elements already there and adding new levels. My hope would be that the company release a recording of the score as I would be keen to hear it again outside of the dancing.

And then onto the dancing which shows us what the company is capable of. For a decade we’ve seen the dancers develop and take on new works including some hugely challenging mixed bills but this is the first time they have tackled a full length classic and there is no doubt they are up to the task.

Across the board the dancers bring a huge level of characterization to the roles – from aged grandparents dancing despite their creaky bones to the cheeky children at the party, each has a firmly rounded personality.  And the dancing is superlartive with wonderful set pieces where the company don Cuban clogs or dance around a maypole to all of the divertissements from the Land of Sweets.

Acosta’s choreography blends the steps we know so well with plenty of new ideas so that we are seeing a Nutcracker which feels very traditional yet also modern. The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy is presented with humour as a trio of performers stagger through their steps as if they’ve had one rum too many, the Chinese Dance is now a couple of martial artists performing impressive acrobatic movements and the Russian Dance features high jumps from both the Cossack and Clara.

This may be a show aimed at medium-scale theatres but there has been no scrimping on the sets designed by Nina Dunn who has worked with Acosta before on BRB productions including Lazuli Sky and his recent Don Quixote. From digital Christmas trees and falling snow through to some wonderful scenes in which we are taken through the streets of Havana, the sets are packed full of imagination and help bring the Cuban setting alive.

Angelo Alberto’s costumes are hugely colourful and clever – not least when the magician character Tío Elías transforms the dowdy villagers into bright butterflies of partygoers without them leaving the stage.

The ultimate success of this work is that it brings us a new Nutcracker which is full of joy and celebration without detracting from the essence of the original story and the music. In doing so the work can appeal to traditionalists who know and love the Nutcracker and are keen to see it from a different angle but also audience members who have no knowledge of the classical ballet who can simply enjoy the spectacle of this work.

The tour, which is presented by Norwich Theatre and Valid Productions, concludes later this month but hopefully Nutcracker in Havana will be back on stage again later this year ready for another Christmas.

Five stars

Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker in Havana was reviewed on Monday 13 January by Diane Parkes at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, where it shows until Tuesday 14 January.