Carlos Acosta interview

From petty mango thief in one of Havana's poorest suburbs to global dance superstar, Carlos Acosta has lots to tell Time Out...

On stage, Carlos Acosta radiates charisma, power and balletic perfection. He leaps like a panther, spins like a tornado. His presence is magnetic, his smile straight from a toothpaste ad. Godlike, basically. When he's on form, it's as if the rest of the stage orbits around him.

In person he's good looking, and his solid, muscular physique, dressed in jeans and a tight white T-shirt, exudes quiet, confident masculinity. But there's no tidal wave of charisma. He's just a 36- year-old dancer, exhausted after a day of rehearsals, dealing with one more work commitment (us!) before he can go home.

The day we meet, the hugely influential German choreographer Pina Bausch has just died of cancer, aged 68. Acosta is winded by the news. His and Bausch's work may have been wildly different but their paths crossed not that long ago.

'We did a gala for the anniversary of Sadler's Wells. She came with her troupe and did one of her pieces - it was very funny,' he says, shaking his head.

'That was in November,' he sighs. 'She was an icon, all around the world.' Acosta is an icon himself, of course, and an idol for many young dancers.

His journey is a unique one: from petty mango thief in one of Havana's poorest suburbs to global dance superstar.

As a nine-year-old football fanatic, minor troublemaker and neighbourhood breakdance champ, Acosta's father forced him into ballet school, desperate to give his son a future. Despite Acosta's best efforts at truanting and multiple expulsions, the boy had talent and eventually fell in love with classical dance. He won the coveted Prix de Lausanne at 16 and performed with the Cuban Ballet, Houston Ballet and briefly with English National Ballet before joining the Royal Ballet in 1998, the company's first black principal.

As well as his unlikely life story, Acosta's reputation rests on his virtuosic performances in the pure classical rep, with his noble presence, huge suspended jumps and dynamite turns.

But anyone looking closely will have noticed that, occasionally, his recent performances have lacked a little of that sparkling lustre. Sure, he can pull off those pirouettes, but didn't it seem a bit distant? Ballet-bynumbers, even?

As befits a what-you-see-is-whatyou- get kind of guy, Acosta is candid enough to admit that maybe the classic roles have lost their pull for him.

'I enjoy classical ballet very much, I always have,' he says, leaning back in his chair and hooking one leg over its arm. 'But I have done everything, with everybody, at a very high level. I've lost that sense of fulfilment, because I don't have the freshness that I used to have.

'I feel too much respect for my audience, my art and myself, to try to push it,' he goes on. 'People might say: "Oh, he's still got it." But the truth is, when I was 20 I was phenomenal. When I look at myself on video - I was a machine. I was untouchable. Why would I compete with that or try to imitate that? The passion that I had then, it's not there.'
Of course he's still got it, but since being made guest principal at the Royal in 2003, he has been exploring new avenues beyond the Opera House and he's currently rehearsing for a four-night run at the London Coliseum, as well as a programme for the Manchester festival, which he'll be bringing to London in December.

The Coliseum show will see Acosta take flight in crowd-pleaser 'Spartacus' and explore some new territory in a male variation on 'The Dying Swan'. But his scope is broader, and in addition to dancing he has contributed choreography and curated the evening, bringing dancers over from Cuba, Russia and Germany and presenting works not seen in this country before.

The mixed bill is, he says, 'a summer show'. 'It's entertaining, for all ages, all tastes. People don't have to think too much, just enjoy the variety.

'This is not me breaking barriers,' he adds, which isn't to say that's not on the agenda. 'Later on I would like to choreograph and take more time to be more serious, more groundbreaking. It might be a disaster, but I want to try and see.'

Acosta has actually already choreographed one full-length show, 'Tocororo', based on his own life. And while it initially suffered some snags in its storytelling, in terms of bums on seats it was a huge success.

The mix of Cuban dance and music with ballet was a natural progression for Acosta, and could be a pointer toward his future direction. 'I'm all about fusion,' he says, 'and that's what I'm going to bring. I used to breakdance, I know how to salsa, but I also have a very strong classical training. It could be everything: pointe shoes, spinning on your head, Tchaikovsky… ' One potential project in the offing is a collaboration with Damon Albarn, for a stage show based on 'The Red Shoes'. Seeing as Albarn's already done Chinese opera, the idea of him delving into modern ballet doesn't seem so outrageous. We'll have to wait and see on that.

In the meantime, Acosta is already exercising his interests beyond dance. He has appeared in a film, 'New York, I Love You' (a collage of shorts in the mould of 'Paris, je t'aime') where he was directed by Natalie Portman. And he's got another one lined up, a lead role in 'The Day of Flowers', which he'll be shooting in Cuba with director John Roberts.

Acosta also wrote his own, very engaging, autobiography, 'No Way Home'. It took him ten years, but that's what you get for not employing a ghostwriter. And now he's working on a new book, fiction this time, a story of slavery in Cuba that follows one family from the 1800s to the present day.

That's ambitious, I tell him. 'I know!' he grins in reply. And from anyone else it might seem a tad overconfident. But when you've gone from Cuban street kid to star of London's Royal Ballet, anything must seem possible. Who says you can't be an author too?

The only thing that didn't work out was a foray into singing. 'It was a disaster,' Acosta grimaces. 'I'm terrible. My vocals burned out. I couldn't speak for a week. I really have no talent at all. But at least I tried.'

He'll take those risks because he doesn't fear failure. 'I just want to try and grow as an artist,' he says simply. 'It's the same thing with choreography, I will try and see. I might have something to say, maybe people will find me interesting, maybe not,' he shrugs.

It seems like one success after another for Acosta (minus the singing), but he has a theory about why he keeps himself so busy and it's all to do with the family life he had to leave behind in Cuba to follow his career. 'In order to gain something you need to give up something,' he says. 'It was my family I had to give up. I think I want to keep my mind busy so I don't have time to think about what I left behind. It's a defence mechanism but so far it's worked for me.'

Acosta seriously loves London - 'for an artist it's the best place in the world' - but he has considered moving his base back to Cuba, to be closer to his family, and his roots.

He'd be sorely missed. The evolution from star performer to all-round artist could be his most impressive career move yet. And without him, London stages would be that bit less shiny. Catch him while you can.

‘Carlos Acosta and Guest Artists’ is at the London Coliseum, July 22-25 2009. Booking is now open for ‘Apollo and other works’, Sadler’s Wells, December 1-5 2009.