CARLOS ACOSTA

THE MUCH-AWAITED RETURN OF THE COMMANDER

On Before by Carlos Acosta is one of the most important spectacles and the most personal work that he has every created and danced. It is a homage to his dead mother. A voyage into death, in which duets and solos intertwine though the work in a ‘vaguely suggestive narrative’. The spectacle has involved choreography by world-renowned artists such as Will Tuckett, Russell Maliphant and Kim Brandstrup, with choreography by Acosta himself to which we must also add Cuban choreographer Raul Reinoso with Nosotros. As the performing arts recover from the difficult and uncertain times brought about by the pandemic, Carlos presents this new version of a work originally conceived in 2010 alongside Cuban ballerina Laura Rodríguez, an original member of his company Acosta Danza, founded in Cuba in 2015. On Before tells the story of the doomed love between a man and a woman, against the backdrop of a varied musical repertory that goes from Handel to contemporary Cuban composer Omar Puente and that culminates with Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, sung live by the O Vos Omnes choir. The Peralada Festival presents a unique opportunity to enjoy once again the great talent of one of the most outstanding performers on the international dance scene of recent times. Carlos Acosta, with an established and brilliant career in the United Kingdom, currently combines management of the Birmingham Royal Ballet with leading his own company, Acosta Danza based in Havana, the city of his birth. A magnificent and profoundly personal spectacle of great beauty that will be the full stop for the 36th Festival.