And so to Manchester, to the Lowry indeed, for Carlos Acosta and friends as part of the Manchester International Festival. I was taking Mama Grebson as a birthday treat and boy did she enjoy it.Carlos Acosta is by repute the world’s best male ballet dancer. What never occurred to me before hand is that, for thinking ladies of a certain age and disposition, he is their equivalent of a night at the Chippendales. There were so many hysterical screaming women, it was like Barry White all over again.
The first half featured two Acosta-less pieces from Danza Contemporanea de Cuba , and a brief but powerful appearance from the main man dancing the pas de deux from Le Corsaire (that really does sound like a euphemism for something unspeakable). He was accompanied by Yiensgay Valdes, Prima Ballerina of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.
The second half was edited extracts of a piece by Acosta called Tocororo: A Cuban Tale, to a live Cuban band. It was supposedly his life story but in reality more of a Fame-style dance off between geeky classical boy (Acosta) and a Huggy Bear style cigar smoking pimp-rollin’ cat (dunno who played him). Acosta won of course, and the two traded hand shakes rather than fists as the girls on stage and off watched on adoringly.
It was all great fun. Ballet really isn’t my sort of thing, but I could appreciate Acosta’s physical and athletic approach that made most European dancers look a bit feeble and listless in comparison. Anyway who cares what I thought, this was very much ladies night.
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