Acosta Danza in A Decade in Motion bill

Acosta Danza are celebrating ten years of existence in a quad bill at London’s Sadler’s Wells…

Acosta Danza in ‘De Punta a Cabo’, by Alexis Fernández. © Hugo Glendinning.

Acosta Danza
A Decade in Motion: La Ecuación, 98 Días, Llamada, De Punta a Cabo
★★★★✰
London, Sadler’s Wells
23 September 2025
acostadanza.com
www.sadlerswells.com

The 15-strong Acosta Danza is ten years old and celebrating in style at Sadler’s Wells with a quad bill that truly showcases what an absolutely sparkling and unique company it is. If you are in London, you would be daft to miss them.

There are some nice interview quotes in the programme that really unlock what the company and its dancers are about:

“There’s … room in dance to be happy and come together. We do that very well as Caribbean people. I want to use dance as a tool to celebrate life - and to have a laugh.”
Carlos Acosta, managing director Acosta Danza

“… I had forgotten about how warm, tactile and different Latin physicalities are.” and “Even if it’s a big cliché, Cuban dancers have a natural ear for rhythm, no matter how complicated.”
Javier de Frutos

Time and time again, I found myself privately sighing at just how gorgeously the dancers move, irrespective of the choreography — it’s a night where you can simply celebrate the human body moving playfully and blissfully to, and on, the beat.

All that said, the evening kicks off with the most austere of pieces, as if the company is saying, “Yes, we can do that abstract and serious contemporary stuff, too.” George Céspedes’ La Ecuación (it means The Equation in English) features nearly all the action taking place in a white 10 ft skeletal cube, positioned centre stage. It starts drily in silence and dim lighting as each of the four dancers performs a slow solo in the cube, while others look on. You start to think, “My, this is hard cerebral work,” and then suddenly it all changes — a fabulous and complex drumming score (X Alfonso) begins, bright downlighting focuses all energy on the cube, and the four dancers tangle and weave within it. Full of stop/start poses, jumps, folds and kicks, it’s all about power, control and precision. At 15 minutes long, it feels like the perfect length, and by the end, the dancers break free from the cube’s constraints and come to the front of the stage, standing before us. Their work here is done. We’ve seen Ecuación before in London; I hope we see it again.

There are two UK premieres, both centred on Federico García Lorca, the Spanish playwright and poet¹. 98 Días (or 98 Days) by Javier de Frutos concentrates on Lorca’s love affair with Cuba, which developed when “a short visit turned into the happiest 98 days of his life.” If you go in blind, it’s not a piece that is easy to read and features much narration of his work and a stark ticking clock of time. It’s a work I would like to see again to help untangle its stop-start episodic structure, but its ten dancers shone most brightly in group work to the music of Estrella Morente, augmented by Michael Nyman’s keyboard minimalism. There’s a lot of flamenco-inspired movement and wonderful shapes made clearer by all the dancers being identically clad in de Frutos’s tailored blue boiler suits. This is sultry and deep work.

Goyo Montero’s Llamada picks up on Lorca’s poems and “explores sexuality, rage and faith.” An episodic work that starts with Owen Belton’s cavernous electric score, and the costuming hints at Andalucía and bullfighting. The movement is ground-based with clever rolling and flaring legs, but when the entire group spreads across the stage in repeating patterns, it becomes quite hypnotic and driven. A more emotional feel accompanies Rosalía’s Si Tu Supieras Compañero, conveying feelings of unrequited love, and flamenco flickers through in the movement — yet more stunning beauty from long, honed bodies moving with perfection. However, it all ends rather mysteriously as the dancers find their way to the front footlights to pose as grotesque gargoyles — there’s no searched-for happiness here.

If the Lorca works can appear beguiling yet perplexing at times, the closing work is a lively piece that embodies the pure spirit of Cuba. De Punta a Cabo (From Top to Bottom), by Alexis Fernández, is set on the Malecón esplanade in Havana, rendered by a very realistic backdrop projection inhabited by its own digital dancers. Out front, the company presents a night of revelry and carousing, moving as only they can in a mix of salsa, ballet and contemporary styles. They couple, they exchange, and they simply have good-natured fun. As daylight breaks, they strip down to their underwear — possibly a little gratuitously — and fall asleep. It’s a rose-tinted view of young Havana life, but it sends us all home happy, wishing we could experience a slice of that and move as they do.

As dancer, choreographer and producer, Carlos Acosta has done much — very much — for ballet and dance over the years, but Acosta Danza is his greatest achievement to date. From nothing, he has created a distinctive company that both celebrates his homeland and delights the world. Bravo to a great man of dance.