Carlos Acosta's company makes Singapore debut

CUBAN-BORN BALLET SUPERSTAR Carlos Acosta is set to perform at the Esplanade's annual festival da:ns in October. Acosta is regarded as one of the best male dancers of all time, often ranking a few notches below Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev, and typically, as the only non-white on the list.

His achievement is all the more notable for the fact that he comes from a poor Cuban family where he was the youngest of 11 children. His lorry-driver father enrolled him in a state-funded dance school to keep him out of street gangs. He went on to become a principal dancer for the Royal Ballet of the UK for 17 years, bringing tremendous pride to the communist-run Cuba.

In 2016, Acosta started his own dance company Acosta Danza in Havana to support the struggling scene in his city. Although Cuba boasts many dance talents, very few find opportunities to perform outside Cuba. Emerging as an international player in just a couple of years, Acosta Danza has helped op…