Ballet made young, fresh and sexy

Carlos Acosta, Lowry Theatre, Salford Keys, for the Manchester Internatonal festival

Superstar Carlos Acosta is arguably the greatest ballet dancer of his time.

Currently the guest principal with the Royal Ballet in London, he was born in Havana, the youngest of 11 children, where his father sent him to the National Ballet School of Cuba to train.

Ever since, his amazing technique and powerful performances have won him a legion of fans and he has succeeded in making ballet young, fresh and sexy.

But it was a more reflective Carlos that graced the stage of the Lowry Theatre during the Manchester International Festival.

Accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Andre de Ridder, the focus of the four-piece performance is classical ballet and the male muse.

Neo-classical and experimental pieces work side by side and produce a reflective feel to the overall show.

Afternooon Of A Faun, with music by Debussy, sets the tone as two dancers in an empty studio stretch and preen in front of a mirror which is the audience.

But the audience is never sure whether what has just happened is real or imagined.

This may be Acosta’s vehicle, but dancer Begoña Cao threatens to steal the show with her wide-eyed grace.

Following a musical overture by Philip Glass, Young Apollo launches itself before the audience as a dizzying, whirling piece of sharp modern movements created especially for festival by Adam Houghland.

Anaïs Chalendard is spun around Acosta during the intense piece which alternates between fluid lines and jerky steps.

The show ends with George Balanchine’s Apollo, created in 1928, an almost abstract performance matching Igor Stravinsky’s restrained music.

But highlight of the show is the penultimate A Suite Of Dances — Carlos dances to four movements from JS Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello with onstage cellist Natalie Clein.

Carlos, shifting between dances like a changing of moods, is a joy to watch. He engages the audience with a range of movements, from gentle and playful, such as swinging his arms to the music, to powerful and technical.

The piece displays his power of expression and shows why his reputation is duly deserved.