Carlos Acosta

Acclaimed dancer Carlos Acosta introduces a new generation of film makers who use b-boying, ballet and contemporary dance to tell their stories. Subjects range from dancing in a bingo hall, acid attacks, body image and wellbeing and the mystical world of baby eels. Each is a remarkable fusion of dance and film. Anatomy of a Crooked Spine; Blast; Elver; Full House; I Am Soldier; I Dance Best with You; Inside; Inside We Break; Manmade; Petals and Pain; Scapelands; We Are Ready Now; We Are Always Here; Do I Have Free Will?

A young Oxford academic and his attorney girlfriend holiday in Morocco. They bump into a Russian millionaire who owns a peninsula and a diamond watch. He wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the lovers on a tortuous journey to the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's intelligence establishment, to Paris and the Alps.

Yuli is the nickname given to Carlos Acosta by his father, Pedro, who considers him the son of Ogun, an African god and a fighter. As a child Yuli avoids discipline and education, learning from the streets of an impoverished and abandoned Havana. His father, however, has other ideas, and knowing that his son has a natural talent for dance, sends him to the National Ballet School of Cuba. Despite his repeated escapes and initial poor behaviour, the boy is inevitably drawn to the world of dance, and begins to shape his legendary career from a young age, becoming the first black dancer to be cast in some of the most prestigious ballet roles, originally written for white dancers, in companies such as the Houston Ballet or the Royal Ballet in London.

Marius Petipa’s exotic ballet set in legendary India is a story of love, death and vengeful judgement. Natalia Makarova’s sumptuous recreation of Petipa’s choreography, with atmospheric sets by Pier Luigi Samaritini and beautiful costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, stars Tamara Rojo as the Bayadère (temple dancer) Nikiya, Carlos Acosta as Solor, and Marianela Nuñez as Gamzatti, whose alluring presence challenges Solor’s love for Nikiya. Live performance recorded in 2009.

Two young, strong-willed Scottish sisters, one a left-wing activist, the other a most-popular-girl-in-school type, take their late father's ashes to Cuba, the site of many family legends of his services to the Revolution. Arriving in Havana, the two women promptly lose the ashes and go through a series of misadventrues - both romantic and dangerous - to try to retrieve them. A colourful and wryly humourous tale of cross-cultural misunderstandings and lost illusions.

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Carlos Acosta's first venture directing one of ballet's 19th century classics was eagerly anticipated, as was his own starring role in the production (as Basilio), opposite the Argentinian Royal Ballet principal Marianella Nuñez (Kitri). Still built on Petipa's original choreography, Acosta's clear dramatic structure and vivid stage action gave the ‘boy gets girl despite her father’ story a more convincing air than usual, with Don Quixote's parallel obsession with Dulcinea-Kitri coherently woven into the plot.

"MacMillan's vision has been vital in shaping The Royal Ballet's style and repertory, and what better way to appreciate his art than with this rare chance to experience three contrasting works in a single performance. Abstract, dramatic, humorous - this programme gives a wonderfully varied introduction not just to MacMillan's work but to the beauty and dramatic power of ballet itself. Concerto, to Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, contrasts moments of exuberance and elegiac reflection. The Judas Tree places a single woman among 13 men to enact a harrowing event that is recognizably contemporary but with biblical overtones. Elite Syncopations completes the programme with a sparkling evocation of a dance hall that brings ragtime rhythms to the dance, and a ragtime band to the stage.

The peasant girl Giselle discovers the true identity of her lover Albrecht – and that he is promised to another. This is one of The Royal Ballet’s most loved and admired productions, faithful to the spirit of the 1841 original yet always fresh at each revival. This performance features former Bolshoi star and now Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova in a breath-taking interpretation of the title role.

The Letter tells the true story of 11-year-old Andrè and his inspiration to pursue a ballet career.

60-minute film in which ballet star Darcey Bussell undertakes a very personal journey to meet the heroes and dancers who transformed male ballet.

International ballet star Carlos Acosta curates and stars in a mixed programme of vibrant Cuban dance inspired by his homeland and performed and recorded on the main stage of the Royal Opera House in July 2014. Uniting dancers and choreographers from the Royal Ballet, Rambert, Cuban National Ballet and Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, Acosta explores the varied styles of Cuban contemporary dance, presenting world premieres by contemporary Cuban choreographers and Cuban dance stars. The programme include Acosta's Tocororo Suite, a selection of highlights from his hugely popular 2003 dance work completely reimagined for the Royal Opera House main stage.

New York, I Love You delves into the intimate lives of New Yorkers as they grapple with, delight in and search for love. Journey from the Diamond District in the heart of Manhattan, through Chinatown and the Upper East Side, towards the Village, into Tribeca, and Brooklyn as lovers of all ages try to find romance in the Big Apple.

Coppélia, a mechanical doll made by the toy-maker Dr. Coppelius, is so life-like that some believe she is his daughter. The mistake leads to intrigue and jealousy in love. Directed by Ross MacGibbon, with Leanne Benjamin and Carlos Acosta.

The Royal Ballet performs a production of Manon, starring Tamara Rojo in the title role with the world-famous dancer Carlos Acosta as her lover Des Grieux. In decadent 18th century Paris, the young, beautiful and naive Manon is torn between a life of privilege and luxury with the wealthy Monsieur GM or love with the poor student Des Grieux. Manon has become one the Royal Ballet's signature works since its creation by choreographer Kenneth MacMillan in 1974. This typically sumptuous production is designed by Nicholas Georgiadis and staged by Monica Mason and Monica Parker.

Ever since its triumphant premiere in 1960, Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardee has been treasured as one of his happiest creations - his artistic tribute to nature, and an expression of his feelings for his beloved Suffolk countryside. Marianela Nunez and Carlos Acosta perfectly portray the young lovers Lise and Colas, determined to thwart the plans of Widow Simone to marry off her wayward daughter to Alain, the simple son of wealthy Farmer Thomas. Osbert Lancaster's colourful, picture-book designs, along with Ferdinand Herold's tuneful score, arranged by John Lanchbery, provide the perfect setting for Ashton's blissfully bucolic ballet, complete with haywain, pony, maypole and ribbons, a cockrel and his chickens and, of course, the famous clog dance, here wonderfully led by William Tuckett as the irascible but lovable Widow Simone.

Internationally acclaimed as the greatest male dancer of his generation, Carlos Acosta stars as the rebel slave in the most spectacular of Soviet ballets. Filmed in Paris after triumphant performances in Moscow and London, the Bolshoi's classic production presents the Cuban star at the height of his physical and dramatic powers -- as the greatest Spartacus of our time.

Carlos Acosta dances as one of the two star-crossed lovers in Shakespeare's timeless tragedy, presented with the classic Kenneth MacMillan choreography and beautifully staged by The Royal Ballet. In this perennial favourite, Carlos Acosta dances alongside Tamara Rojo in a celebrated stage partnership. The drama of the doomed lovers is set against the ravishing sets and costumes designs of Nicholas Georgiadis.

Dance Cuba: Dreams of Flight begins with the historic coming together of American and Cuban dance companies in Havana. The heart and soul of the film rests in the human stories that revolve around the unity of the two.

1998 Made-for-TV Italian film.

A 1972 television adaptation of Los Vendidos, a one-act play by Chicano playwright Luis Valdez, a founding member of El Teatro Campesino. The play examines and dramatizes stereotypes of Mexican Americans in California and how they are treated by local, state, and federal governments.

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