Carlos Acosta

35:21I straightened my hair. I got the beard. I got everything. And I invited some friends to that show. And one of the best compliments anybody could pay, you know, to me or that show, it was that the very first thing you see is Prince Rudolph getting into a stage. and he's been, he danced, he doesn't basically, the entire first act, he doesn't leave the stage. And I was there dancing for half an hour, and a friend of mine said, I wonder when Carlos is going to get into stage. They didn't realize it was me. That's incredible. And that was the best compliment. I love that. I really love that I managed for them to characterize myself, that they didn't see me.

36:08You know, they saw somebody else completely different. And that's what's fun about what ballet and being an artist in general, you know, just keep evolving and changing and inventing yourself. God, that's incredible. How amazing. To fool your friends, that's really something. Because you've talked about, you've said ballet is very erotic. The way we dress is very suggestive. The clothing is pretty outrageous and all the emphasis on the bottom and the crutch with the man in skin tight tights and a huge bulge. Is this part of the layers of meaning, the kind of innocent story with all this flesh and blood pulsing away underneath?

36:57You know, it's a show. A show, you know, involves thousands of people, and I'm sure thousands of people come, you know, can bring for different reasons to the show. They got attracted to a different show, you know, and of course, it's very erotic. And of course, the thing about conveying a story with movement is that it's subject to your own interpretation because there's no words being uttered. And so more than words, you are in a position of co-author of that narrative. You know, and it could have a different meaning to me than to you because you play a role in what you are seeing. And it is what people are driven to ultimately.

37:49Some people, it's about the execution. Those who are more connoisseurs, they know what they're doing with the arms and the way that they dance and whether the double tour and l 'air is being executed well or not. But, you know, other people, it's the relationship, you know. your own essence as a human being, how you communicate and you work the space. And of course, there are vallets and vallets, you know. For instance, contemporary vallets are very much exposed. Yeah, yeah. You know, very much exposed. You know, some, some, obviously, there's a little bit of everything. But I mean, Romeo and Juliet, you know, you have these small traditional, So you have a cloak and you have a jacket because you're supposed to represent a specific period.

38:42But then obviously you had to factor in the tights, which is our uniform. So you could have a grasp of the ballet idioms because everything is using the ballet vocabulary. And obviously we need to have certain freedom for moving in the space. But it's erotic. It's very erotic. Ballet, dance, it's very erotic. And another layer is the music. Yeah. When you're factoring the music and then music and movement come together, already that, you know, elevates, you know, your senses into. So I think it's just fantastic, you know, when it happens that you just see the incredible cast, incredible ballet, seven-piece orchestra playing live.

39:41Live is a very important element here. Yeah. And then you and yourself being part of that live experience. And then you might receive it differently because you maybe the day before came to the globe or saw something else. Yeah. And so your mind, it's contaminated with other experience. Other people haven't watched ballet in a long time, seem to you, and then come up. Or maybe somebody has something in their home that they need escapism to do. They arrive and then you look and they're crying. You don't know why they're crying. It didn't make you cry because you went to the globe. So it's just so many, how do you react to the, and then you might think, well, actually the globe is better.

40:34And then the other person is completely drenched in tears. And that is, each one experience is valid because it is a mirror put to each one of you. You react to it. It depends how you are in your life or in that particular moment. What are your needs that prompted to come to see it in the first place? You know, it's very interesting. And you learn about, you know, a lot about the crowd. When you look at the crowd, you see that the first court is go down and you look around and see where everybody else, you know. And you see maybe the one guy there while everybody's standing up and have a drink in the interval.

41:19And that one guy there sitting down. Soggin' all up and what he's just seen. God, so you see all those. Yeah, you could see. I mean, we probably, you know, we have our own agenda, but sometimes if you just scan the auditorium around you, once that first curtain goes, the people will tell you so much of what they're seeing. It's amazing. God, that's incredible. because you talked about having very little food when you were growing up, but you also talked about sugar, and you said, I became addicted to sugar, and I wondered if you still have a visceral response to sugar when you eat it now because it's such a powerful activator and it's so blissful.

42:14Social power is a drug, too. I'll tell you. I keep overdosing with sugar still, you know. Like I had this addiction. Oh, my God. And I did try, you know. I tried and I tried to limit it. In fact, I moved to honey now. I tried to fool the system, go to honey. I don't know if that's better or worse, but now I take, you know, coffee with honey, honey, everything. But I think it's just for us Cuban and those who from my generation know exactly what I'm talking about here. It's like Cuba being the, you know, the largest in the 50s, 30, 40, 50, the largest producer of sugar in the world was Cuba. And the relationship with Cuba, you know, sugar with Cuba is very, very tight.

43:02And in my generation, there used to be a motto, you know, that is encouraging to eat sugar. Sugar and the motto was sugar in order to grow. So to want to grow healthy and grow totally and grow sugar was the answer. That was the motto that we grew up with. So we used to have water with sugar, bread with sugar, sugar, sugar in everything. Everything that you have, you know, you have, say, like a grapefruit. Yeah. A grapefruit, no way. You have to put sugar in the grapefruit. And even the oranges, already very sweet, not sweet enough. You have to put sugar in there. I mean, it's insane. My sister's the same.

43:48You know, when you get an orange and you squeeze it, and it's a fresh squeeze, you know, Mother Nature. You know, you can't get wrong. It's Mother Nature who produces it. And you drink it, and that's it. It's perfection. No, my sister, no way. Forget about Mother Nature. Put sugar in it. Yeah. Make it sweeter and syrupy. And so I'm still, I'm addictive. What can I say? I try less and my wife is trying to control it and say, no way. You know, thank God I have my wife to help me. And of course, it's a big fight because no, no, no, give one more sugar spoon. No, no, less. And it's always, but at least, you know, that helped me to control it.

44:34But yeah, it's a big addiction. Yeah, it's one of the hardest because it has such a powerful memory history. It just brings everything good back. All your sort of cravings are suddenly like it's all happening in that one taste and then you can never stop. Are you addicted? Are you a sugar? Yeah, I get really bad headaches if I eat too much sugar. So everyone thinks I'm very self-disciplined, but I have such a bad reaction that I have to manage my intake. And there are certain things, certain times where I'll just go, you know, I know that I need that relax of sugar. Okay. All right. That's great.

45:21So I'm really with you. Great company. We're in the same company. Yeah. No, sure. And, you know, for instance, my wife sees the chocolate. Oh, my God. Yeah. Chocolate, chocolate. But I read that, you know, chocolate within reason, you know, supposed to be good for you. I don't know, maybe one. I don't know. I read that it has benefits. Chocolate has benefits. I don't know. I think it depends. The chocolate, the taste that's unrewarding has benefits, but not the nice sweet stuff that makes you feel all blissed out. When you joined the English National Ballet at 18, you were described as bringing both machismo and palpable Cuban warmth to the then pale, repressed and European ballet scene.

46:13Did you ever feel like you were being fetishized? I'm a bit relaxed about how people feel what I'm bringing because I think, you know, I'm so grateful that the people have put me where I am and have given me this, you know, this amazing home here in England. And people are entitled to show their appreciation how they want. And, you know, whatever you think I'm bringing to you, I will appreciate it. And I'm not going to judge what that is. And, you know, and so people, this is, you know, if they describe me as that, that's fine. And other people would disagree and would pick other aspects of what I'm bringing, you know.

46:57But I think I am a bit relaxed. And, you know, I read this with interest and say, oh, wow, that's what it does. Oh, okay. But relax. Don't try to, you know, my life is a fairy tale. I shouldn't even be here, you know. And I'm so grateful, and I try always, every day, find an opportunity to remind myself of that and keep it real. So, yeah, I'm very blessed, and all I have is being grateful and appreciation of what happened and just enjoy this amazing ride. in the summer, this last summer, I have, again, been blessed to have an opportunity to perform again at a Royal Opera House stage. That's been my home for 17 years.

47:56And this time I did it with my daughter. Could you believe it? The last time my daughter was, my daughter Ayla was on stage was when she was two years old. I was retiring and I carried my arms on stage and we both look at the auditorium and she was like bewildered. That's amazing. And then we had this amazing opportunity to share the stage now age 14. She's age 14 and she performed with me, with daddy on stage, you know, all this many years later, 12 years later. How cool is that? How blessed is that to create these memories for your children, you know? And I still can pretty much hold just about, you know, the performance.

48:46I can still do something. But it's all about that for me. It's all about sharing with others. It's to promote other new talent and new choreographers. You know, in this case, you know, my daughter now. And it's a great time, my time now, you know. So it's fantastic to see as a father and still directing, choreographing, but still dancing. It's a great collision of, yeah, it's a great moment. And do you have a fetish?

49:32No. No, I don't think so. No. I never stop. And even the things that I might, you know, have sort of like, as like sexual induendo or something, it does not consider as that, as fetish. No. Could you find, like, are there certain body proportions that you find attractive? um like i i find watching sylvie guillem totally mesmerizing how she dances her legs are so long she seems completely wild and i'm as designers we're really interested in proportion and i wondered as a dancer do you find there's a certain shape or a certain aspect to do with proportion that you find, oh, that you really are drawn to and you love to see?

50:37I think the thing about where I'm standing is that ballet has been with me since I was nine. And it's a sense of repetition, repetition, repetition, so many hours a day. So what others consider maybe erotica or something, for us it becomes normal because it's our life. We don't view it the same way. and of course there is a switch there somehow that when you get into the space with your colleagues, your partners we both are from the perspective of committed to you know negotiate your way around the ballet and the choreography so that we could bring the best narrative of the breath, the best performance so there's that switch also So that you go in and, you know, yeah, you might for, you know, a moment or two, you know, just see if you don't know this dancer, you just get to know her.

51:39And there was this, you know, the first impression or whatever. But once you go there, it's pretty much quite sort of pragmatic because you have a coach, you have the pianist, and you might be other people in the road who contribute to rehearsal and there is a little stop and start and stop and start and then obviously you have the physical element of that. And because of the hardness and because the ballets are very long and there are some aspects that are acting aspects of the ballet and acting with the music, there's so many elements to factor in. you sort of learn not to think about this sort of stuff that can get in the way.

52:29And yes, I mean, the Sylvia Yen, which whom I perform, and it's an incredible professional. Yes, the B-E-N, it was everybody's in awe for her physical ability and how incredible, you know, she pushes this art form to a different level. And she was also a beautiful woman as well, a tall, beautiful woman. and we are no white hair persona on space. But once you start to work together, it's no longer about any of it. It's about how we could work together. And maybe I just, I had to do this lift with her and I'm placing my hand too high up and then she don't feel comfortable and she just stop and say, can you get a little bit lower so I can go back more?

53:17And it's that kind of negotiation there. I try again, she goes, she bends backward. And then you say, is that right? Yeah, that's exactly right. And now in this step, this didn't go right. And so it's always going through the process. And there's not so much room for that kind of way of thinking. Obviously, you coming from the outside is a completely different story because you come at it fresh and you're just discovering there where for us it's been so many hours and it's almost like a habit and it's a lifestyle. It's a completely different relationship. Yeah, I think sometimes in fashion it's so exacting about that, but because it's maybe more static unless you see someone on the runway where you see their persona come to life.

54:15And I went to watch a ballet class the other day at Pineapple, and there was a girl, and the way she moved her hands and her fingers was totally captivating. And I felt so, you know, you just don't really know where you're going to be moved, but someone has this talent literally in their fingertips. I found that really interesting. And because you are an artist, there's another layer of you discovering these things that other people might miss it. Because you just go deeper and you're so used to being untuned to observe. Yeah. But observe the minimal things as an artist would do. But most people, they just, they don't, a lot of the people don't stop and going that deep into, like you're talking about the way she moves their hands.

55:13A lot of people say, wow, look at the jump. Or, wow, she went around 10 times. You know, I mean, I've been told about my hands as well sometimes. Really? That they were expressive and things. Yeah. And I was curious because, you know, what I read and what I read in reviews and what I read of people, you know, it's precisely the jump and maybe as a way of essence, it's a masculinity and this and that. But then somebody just told me, oh, your hands or something. And I'm like, oh, wow, my hands. But again, not everybody picks on all those things. So you have to be, you know, deep. I've been told that I have sad eyes.

55:56So when somebody say, you have such sad eyes, I'm like, really? I always saw myself as a happy person, you know. But you say, you know, melancholic sad eyes. I was like, maybe it was a sad moment, you know, but I don't consider myself, my eyes are sad. I mean, but it's different. People see some things that they are attracted to, and there is a real attraction in sadness as well. Like people love sad songs for good reason. And if you fancy someone but you don't like what they're wearing, does it kill your attraction?

56:37I want to say kill my attraction. I think there is a harmony. There's a harmony that it has persona, essence of that person, the way they conduct themselves, the way they speak, and all that, it could come to a harmony. I guess it could have a dissonant chord. It depends if that harmony is not completed. But, you know, it also comes to with the persona because you might initially be judgmental of a particular chord, but once you start speaking with that person, you get it because it goes with who that person is. I don't know if that makes sense. So, you know, it's very hard to judge. You know, you could just judge it and say all the pictures and then just say, well, this picture, it doesn't quite work, you know.

57:40But if you talk to the persona wearing it or something and maybe there's a soul as well wearing it with flair, the way that that persona use it, the item they're wearing, whether the jacket goes, I don't know. And then that makes more of a harmony. And then it could actually let you to change the original perception. But I, yeah, I think ultimately it's when you talk to the person. You talk to the person, we're having a conversation. and then there are two souls and trying to find a middle ground or common ground in terms of association. You know, we both like that, we both see it or what. And so people have nothing to do with each other.

58:33And their energy, it's just they're not compatible because, you know, they're just too dissimilar.

58:42but I would give it more of a chance in terms of interaction with a person first before saying whether the outfit or not put me off. I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah, I suppose especially as being in like there's so many costumes so you see people in things you might not normally but see them in But I was wondering if you don't have like a certain thing. Like Nick Cave said he hated ankle boots and he couldn't bear to see them on his wife. And, you know, he really meant it. And you don't have any like little private hatreds of certain garments that doesn't make any sense. You're just like, oh, no, please don't do that.

59:34I think maybe, I would say maybe color. Oh, right. Color, let me just rephrase this. I love color. Yeah. But some colors are louder than others. And how you blame the colors.

59:53So I guess, you know, it's like a rainbow of loud colors. I don't know. It might, it depends what it is, but it might produce an effect. You know, it is so many colors together, you know. So maybe that's too loud. Yeah, yeah. Maybe it's that. But again, I don't want to be too just black or white because, I mean, I have friends of mine. For instance, I have a designer friend who uses color. but wow the way that she arranges together you know they have this cohesiveness yeah yeah but again I'm not somebody that you know grew up or has that kind of way of conducting very oiled within me I need help you know hopefully my chap my wife helped me a lot yeah she dresses beautiful She's got a great style.

1:00:55But I don't know how much it's even to do with fashion. Sometimes I think it's to do with extreme self-consciousness. And I heard someone describe something called secondary embarrassment, secondhand. So it's like, and I used to have this, and it was to do with my own self-consciousness as a young person that I would look at someone else and I would have a kind of terrible kind of response, like a visceral response thinking, oh, that thing, it's wrong. It doesn't, it would just, I didn't even have any logic, but maybe that's part of why people become designers so I can make something that I can breathe this, you know I don't have to worry about that person which is really worrying about myself and my own excruciating sense of myself which is much better than it used to be but I think sometimes that being very alive to something that you don't want someone else to wear is really about yourself That's amazing.

1:02:15That's interesting. I mean, you look so beautiful always. But it's almost like you have this necessity of building your surrounding. You sort of like see beauty and how you impact your surroundings. And it makes sense because it's that kind of sensitivity. It's almost like a painter would do. You paint and you step back and then you see everything. So you look for that kind of. And that's where you see how you present yourself. You see, I struggle with that. I think it's a positive on your part. It's a freedom, whereas I think of that thing that I was talking about, it's like a tyranny. And it's so, you know, it just stops you.

1:03:12And that's also where clothes are useful because you can get these clothes that mask your concern and your self-consciousness and your lack of freedom. You have a great outfit and you can actually stop thinking about yourself because it draws just enough attention to satisfy, you know, being, not being anonymous. And yeah, it's quite a, it's a thing. It's great to hear you talk like that. No, it's amazing about this duo that we're doing. Yeah, yeah. A pas de deux, we call it, you know, because you learn. I'm learning a lot in hearing you talk about that. I love that, discovering, you know, I do know that it is a world that, you know, that I really never dive into.

1:04:16But I think describing what you are saying, you know, the way you describe it to me It's just incredible, you know, how my wife had that. I mean, she's the one who really helped and teased me a lot and said, what the hell? What's going on with that? And I'm like, it feels like, no, absolutely no. You know, and she just. It's so good to have that freedom where it's not shame ridden. you can just take it or give it and it's like okay you know i'll fix you know and sometimes i you know because of that you know i just go and do that and then she approves and it's like oh wow i get it right with one go wow that's an improvement that's perfect it's funny because i'm an independent person and i'm like i have to have my freedom to wear it and she's like no No, it's always a fight.

1:05:17And then the kids in the middle. What do you think, Kyla? What do you think? Your mom thinks that, you know. It's a delicate, a delicate tightrope. Because you talked about writing, just briefly you touched on that. And you've written a memoir, No Way Home, and also a novel called Pigsfoot. and is writing another, I mean writing is such a relentlessly difficult art, another one and does it feel like an extension of your creative drive because you are such a driven person? You know, your sister Esther is a writer, she is a writer, I'm not a writer, I've written two books, I also choreograph, but that doesn't, I, you know, some people might disagree and no, no, I don't consider myself a writer, but definitely not by office because that's not what I do for a living.

1:06:17I mean, I'm somebody who have an idea and had the discipline to start and finish that idea, even if it takes 10 years. And that's what happens with my memoirs. Yeah. I wanted to tell my own story as a way of therapy, actually. Yeah. because I was in a lot of pain. I started in the process of my life, in the period of my life, that I was very depressed. I joined the Royal Ballet in 98 and I wasn't dancing and I thought that maybe I made a mistake of leaving Houston for the Royal Ballet. I had so much time in my hand and I was depressed. In London, raining, it was sunny, and I was still trying to find my own Cuba in this vast metropole.

1:07:01And then I say, I'll tell you something. I'm going to write my story. And then, you know, it took me 10 years to write it. I didn't know how to write. I didn't even know how to spell my name right. But I knew that I had to learn. And in order to learn to write the story, I had to read. And so I started to read the classics. I read, you know, Salinger's Catcher in the Rite and all the classics. But I read with the intention of knowing what makes a book classic and what makes a good narrative so that I can learn to tell my own story. That process took me 10 years. And then I said, well, I published it.

1:07:45Amazing. I published it. Now I'm going to come up with a story on my own. And then Bloomsbury published this novel. I don't think I carry on. I don't think I have what it takes. I don't have the necessity of telling or going that way. I'd probably give it a go if I still manage it, you know, another book. But I don't consider myself a writer, you know. Your sister is a writer and others. But I've been blessed that I had the discipline and I had the drive and to start something. and even if I'm going down in everything, I'll finish it. I start and I finish everything, even if it takes how many years.

1:08:33And that's what happened with me and writing. Because I was going to ask you about the choreographer Martha Graham said this thing, a dancer dies twice once when they stop dancing. And I know you haven't stopped dancing, But what happens to your identity when you can't do what you used to do with your body? And how do you feel about your body? I absolutely relate to that. I mean, one of the saddest days of my life was when I started to remove the pictures from my dressing room. You know, I have been in that space for, I don't know, maybe 15 years. And then I had a routine, and the routine was always been wake up, go to the Royal Opera House, go to the dressing room, get a shower, get change, and then until 6.30 we have a life within that complex.

1:09:42One day that stopped completely, and the following day I had to come up with a new routine, a new life. What is it going to be? It's going to be wake up and do what? That's the saddest day because also ballet was my greatest friend. It was a friend that I knew that would never abandon me, that I could count on whenever things turned out bad or I was sad. I could always dance my sorrows away. dance was always there for me. And the relationship that I always had with dance was a particular relationship. It was a relationship about survival. That's why sometimes I felt like I had to be careful how somebody who asks advice, you know, what advice I give them.

1:10:37Because for me, it wasn't just the dance just for the sake of being dancing. I was using dance in order to survive. You know, whenever things were bad at home, you know, that's where always be my shelter, my refuge. I would dive into dance very deeply because I needed to get out of that environment and needed to get out of my situation. and I needed to succeed so that my family had a better life and I could have a better life for myself. And so that dance was always there. That was what made me travel the world, made me speak English, was all about dance and about ballet. And one day that stopped, and now what?

1:11:31I mean, luckily, and that's why I'm so lucky, that even though after this kind of limbo that I went through, because this is relating to your question, you go into a kind of limbo, like trying to adapt to the circumstances that you're no longer a dancer and ballet is no longer there, available for you. And then you just struggle to see who you are, what is your identity. And you find that nothing can top at that level. Nothing can satisfy you at that level. And you're trying to find this new situation and come to terms with the new situation that is no longer about you anymore. It's no longer about your body and your body in the space.

1:12:24It's about somebody else. It's about the pupils. It's about the dancers you coach or the dancers you teach. And you find the best comfort knowing that they succeed and as a way of you dancing through others. Wow. But none never going to satisfy you as you being there in that space. You know, and so for dancers, it's very, very hard, you know, to get used to this kind of life. For me, luckily, I branch out into becoming a contemporary dance because I always have a thirst of evolving and trying to have multitasking and trying to branch myself and find different ways to connect with an audience. being through books, being through choreographies, et cetera, I discovered contemporary dance early on, and I had the necessity already in my 30s to work with contemporary choreographers because I knew the local evolution from a classical dancer was towards contemporary dance.

1:13:44That's where the freedom lies, freedom for exploring, And that is what you could just find your own way to connect beyond the boundaries of the ballet vocabulary. And so I started to work with different choreographers. So by the time I retired from the Royal Opera House in 2015, I already have a contemporary company established in Cuba called La Costa Danza that allowed me to still do a little bit of dancing, contemporary dance within that structure. And still even now, 53, every so often I appear and I have a project and it gave me the possibility to still feel I'm still a dancer. Yeah. And that's why at the beginning of this conversation I said that I'm so blessed that I still can say I'm a dancer.

1:14:43Yeah. And still it's not all lost. I anticipate that if all goes well, I'm going to carry on performing every so often, but I'm looking forward to still get this sort of glimpse and this sort of getting back to that life as a dancer still for many years to come. I don't think it should be the end. I think maybe it's the end of playing Romeo. You know, it was like 16, 17. You move away from what Romans require, Romans require, but it doesn't have to be the end. You just need to find other ways to communicate and to present truthfully, you know, the life you're living now. Yeah. And with honesty and say, this is me at 53.

1:15:41and this is me at 65 if I make it that way and this is me for whoever wants to be part of that journey that in my case started many years ago in Havana and whoever wants to still taking part of this version of myself working with the right artist that allowed us or allowed me to create with them something fantastic. And I don't think I, from that perspective, I will retire. I'm looking forward to carry on having projects here and there and collaborations and still being on stage. Because you're bringing Acosta Dancer back to London this October and Cuban Baroque at Sadler's Wells. and it's such a mysterious thing being moved by dance.

1:16:42And what is a good audience for a dancer? Because you go to a concert, people are screaming, you know, like it's obvious, but you touched on it earlier about how do you know how they've been affected or that you have affected them? I think the perfect audience is the audience that don't have any precondition of what they're about to see. And then they just open to be conducted. Yeah. And for whatever they are about to see once that content goes up. and, you know, it could be a very conceptual dreaming show. It could be abstract. It could be melodic. It could be, there's so many ways that you could just be moved or being conducted.

1:17:47But, you know, if you, the best way would be if people just let, you just sit down and see what's going to happen without having a precondition of what you want to happen. Obviously, you know, if you are a ballet dancer and you're going to see Swan Lake, you do know you have a precondition of what's about to happen. You know the story, you know the music, you know what's about to happen, and it's all about how strong the cast is. But you do not have an idea. You have an idea what the steps are. Yeah. Because I guess with the title like Romeo and Juliet or Swan Lake, you aren't drawn for that, for the story.

1:18:31But contemporary dance, you know, like you and Baroque, what is that? Come and see. Be open-minded. You know, you read a little bit, but that's the best. Just say, okay, I just want to see what that's all about. And I think contemporary dance, I think it's very important that you bring an open mind to it, to the equation. Because I think sometimes, you know, there are some contemporary dance that are not very physical. You know, some people have texts about the dance is actually in second rate, maybe. So they use elements. They walk. Right, yeah. They talk. But if you just say, well, where is the dancing?

1:19:24Or where is the jumps? I came here to have body move. Then you're missing out what that artist is trying to take you. It might take you to something new or fresh or new ideas or something. So I think it's very important that contemporary modern art, people come to it knowing that that is what they're coming to see. Contemporary modern art, the home of conceptualism, the home of new ideas. and new sometimes are very revolutionary or very un-archodox, unconventional. That's new. That's revolutionary. That means that it doesn't follow what you know. Yeah, yeah. But if you just want to follow what you know, then you miss out the revolutionaries in front of your eyes.

1:20:25So I think that that is the space, and that's why I'm so excited about contemporary, dance. And I love all of it without judging it. Because some of them, or all of them have some mission. You know? And if you're not related to the open mind like that, then you miss the mission. Because the mission of this artist perhaps is not repeat, but you know. So anyway, it's a bit... But I think that that is what pushes the boundaries. That's what you want, that kind of, all right, this is what there has been. I'm going to do something that nobody has thought of. That's where artists who are trying to collaborate or bring technology into that space, or maybe I'm just going to do a dance where the physical body is interacting with the holograms.

1:21:24Yeah. And that's with this clever evolution, starts, you know, this, let's go to the unknown.

1:21:35And it might be that the unknown, it becomes a starting point of a new movement that is yet to see. You know, when Nijinsky did, Nijinsky, you know, late, late 19th century. Yeah, I love Nijinsky. Dijinsky, when he did phone, phone, La Premi did phone for the first time, you know a lot of people walk away and demanded their money back because it was the very first time anybody had leotards, so exposing the body to the body as it was, nothing hiding it, like a unitarre, interpreting the phone. Yeah. And the theme of the phone was sexual. I mean, and the guy had an orgasm with the veil of the nymph on stage.

1:22:31Imagine. People say that's outrageous to even use that as a theme for a choreography. And then that paved the way of balancing that came after, that paved the way of the other one that came after until today. So imagine at that time how that forward sync was. It was a repair for society. So the same as today, you might think, oh, this is just, but it could be the beginning of something that you probably are not ready for. But in 20 years from now, people look back and say, wow, that's the beginning. Yeah. You know, it's like Black Sabbath music. Yeah, I love that. In the beginning, it was like, what the hell is that?

1:23:15But now, because of that, the punk movement came after and so on and so on. Now they are like the grandparents of heavy metal, the one who invented it all. So I think that that's the clever thing about being open when you come in to see contemporary, anything contemporary. And let's face it, there are not a lot of great success in contemporary. You know, some people might, you know, they might think that it just has no value. Some of the work, you know, there's everything. You know, not everything is just gold. But I think the open-mindedness, I think, is important for an audience. Will you be dancing?

1:24:03In Cuban Baroque? Yeah. No. No? No, no. I'm going to be dancing in the future somewhere, but not in Cuban Baroque. But not in this particular. Yeah, because it's the company. Right. The company is so good. Yeah. Those dancers' time, I don't want to take away from them. And every so often that the show that we just finished at the Royal Opera House, you know, I bring me into the equation so that they could see these dancers and so that they could see me. but I present dancers, I present my company, all the elements that I want people to be aware of, you know, great talent here or something. But my company already established a follower without me, which I think that's great.

1:24:54And I think it's their time of these dancers to take the limelight. And, you know, they are very young. They came through the academy that we created in Havana in 2016. They all come from graduates for this academy. And I feel like a grandfather when I see them. You know, it's like these babies. Because they come to audition for me in Cuba, age 14. And we put them in, you know, like number 15 and a picture with the number, no? You put them in the ballet bar and a class. Number 15 is Amisadae and then Jennifer is number something. And they're all like little, you know, these little scrawny kids still.

1:25:42And then you see them blossoming into this young adult. My God. And all I'm thinking is of that journey because I remember them when they had this number. And now she's this beautiful young adult, incredible at that peak of their career. And it's such a rewarding process, you know. And it's like a family because it's a very small company. I mean, we bring in, it's like 15 dancers, you know, like really small. And it's still the same, you know, the same teachers. and we have endured a lot in these 11 years. You know, we're having ups and downs, pandemic, everything. Grants that we don't have from government, non-government.

1:26:35This is just me with a couple of backers, people who, you know, I had the fortune that they have invested in my foundation and with that I could put it together. but yeah it's a great process I'm very proud of that company I can't wait to see and thank you so much Carlos Acosta for being on Fashion Eurosis I've learnt so much it's been so interesting and fun as well thank you Vela thank you so much

1:27:19Thank you.