Carlos Acosta

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2005

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway is the dancer Carlos Acosta. Carlos Acosta is one of the greatest ballet dancers of his generation. He is the first black principal dancer at Covent Garden. Tocororo, the show about his own life, that he wrote, choreographed and starred in, broke box office records at Sadlers Wells and in his homeland of Cuba he is a national hero.

But his extraordinary success has followed an even more remarkable journey from the impoverished back streets of Havana. He was the youngest of 11 children and, as a boy, his only ambition was to be a footballer. At the age of nine, his father sent him to ballet school - inspired not by art, but by the promise of free school meals and the hope that his increasingly delinquent son would be brought into line by the strict regime. Carlos hated it, was bullied by his friends and was twice expelled.

The first time, his father persuaded the school to take him back, the second, his father found another ballet school and secured Carlos a place there as a boarder. It was only there, at the age of 13, that he had an epiphany. Seeing the Cuban National Ballet perform he decided he did want to follow that path. At the age of 16 he travelled for the first time to Europe, he won four major dance competitions in one year and his career as an international ballet dancer was launched.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Bacalao Con Pan by Irakere Book: Dirty Trilogy of Havana by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez Luxury: Case of Havana rum

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.7	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.4	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all
0:28.1	put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.
0:42.2	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:45.3	The program was originally broadcast in 2005, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.
0:50.7	Music was Sue Lawley.
1:07.8	My castaway this week is a dancer.
1:11.2	At Coven Garden or across the Atlantic in the American Theatre Ballet, he's a star. But in the country he comes from, Cuba, he's a national hero, because his
1:17.1	is a story of hardship turned to fortune. After a rough and difficult childhood in the back
1:23.0	streets of Havana, he ended up in a boarding school where he learned to dance ballet.
1:31.3	He was sent to Europe on a scholarship and began to win international competitions.
1:36.6	His career took off and although he felt often very isolated and homesick,
1:40.7	he became one of the most admired principal dancers in ballet today.
1:45.1	Last year he created his own show based on his life that premiered in Havana and was nominated for an Olivier Award when it showed in London last summer. Cuba, he says,
1:50.6	is my inspiration. I can't live without going back there. It is who I am, which is Carlos
1:56.8	Acosta. And that show you created Carlos calledocororo. It's a reflection of all the
2:02.4	styles of dance, really, that have informed you from salsa to classical ballet and everything
2:07.3	in between. That's right. And of course, you know, the Cuban element has to be there as well as
	...

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