Carlos Acosta presents eclectic dance bill at Royal Opera House with his two companies

Carlos Acosta, the 53-year-old dancer and director of Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Cuban company Acosta Danza, is appearing in Myths and Modern Masters at the Royal Opera House. The programme brings together dancers from both companies and also features Acosta himself.

The evening opens with José Limón’s 1949 work The Moor’s Pavane, based on Shakespeare’s Othello. With Acosta as Othello, Beatrice Parma as Desdemona, Max Maslen as Iago and Miki Mizutani as Emilia, the piece condenses the story of deception, jealousy and revenge into measured steps and stylised gestures set to Purcell’s courtly music.

Nosotros, an intimate duet by Cuban choreographers Beatriz García and Raúl Reinoso, follows. Acosta and Amisaday Naara depict the complex everyday dynamics of a long-standing couple, including patterns of give and take, gestures of tenderness or neglect, and physical actions of supporting, mirroring and evading.

Acosta’s own Nutcracker in Havana Suite casts him as a fatherly magician to young Clara, played by his daughter Aila Acosta Holland. The piece draws on exotic scenes from Act 2 of the traditional Nutcracker and ends with the classic pas de deux.

Agrippina Vaganova’s 1935 Diana and Actaeon pas de deux is performed by Katherine Ochoa and Yasiel Hodelín Bello. Their whirling, leaping and balancing is almost superhuman, a display of youth’s virtuosity.

The programme closes with Christopher Bruce’s Rooster, set to songs by the Rolling Stones. Acosta dances with impressive attitude, though the choreography belongs to a youthful freshness that he has moved beyond. The Royal Opera House performances continue until 9 August.