Transcript Lou Cope talks to CARLOS ACOSTA Feb 2021 Lou: Hi, Carlos, thank you so much for joining me. How are you doing? Carlos: Fine, fine, thank you for inviting me. Lou: Oh it's a real pleasure. It's really nice to see you. So, I guess you're not at home. You're talking to me from a place that has decent internet. Is that right? Carlos: That's right. That's right. We live in a valley that had no, amazingly, had no optical cable, you know, it doesn't matter how much we try, but anyway, it's very unsustainable. Lou: Wow, I don't suppose you knew when you moved in quite how important optical cables would be in your future life. Ho-hum maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's a good thing that it's not there. So, yeah, I understand you spent the first lockdown actually in your lovely Somerset home and I'm imagining that this lock down is a bit different for you because things are waking up at BRB and things are getting a bit more hectic. Is that right? Carlos: That's right. I mean the entire lockdown, you know, it's been a nightmare for, for everyone and, you know, I mean, we managed well during the Fall, last Fall we managed to put some shows on stage, but about now we should have been touring Cinderella, and obviously that got canceled and you know, we're looking realistically for the summer and see what happens, you know, hopefully in the summer we'll be able to go, on stage and with an audience, even if we need social distance, which is what we want. Where we belong. Lou: Okay. So that's the hope for the socially distanced audiences in the summer? Carlos: Yes. Yeah, that's what we are striving for. We got two World Premieres that we're going to be working on and one UK Premiere and Cinderella as well. And simultaneously, we’re having ideas to, again, keep, keep, producing digital pieces as well because you know, it's, it's going to be very important going forward to have that digital presence but, yeah, it's hopefully from now on, you know, we'll have a plan that we can, as a sector execute and carry on, you know, back, keep it go back on course. And me, as a director, being able to finally deliver my vision of the Company. Lou: Yeah. I was thinking about that. So, you started your job as director of Birmingham Royal Ballet in January 2020, which is hilarious, really, you know, a matter of hours before COVID took its hold, so I'm not going to ask you if you regret taking the job, nor if it's been a difficult year but I'm assuming from what you say that actually some quite positive things have come out of it as well for you and for the team and the Company and certainly, you've got to know each other quite quickly. Are there positives for you that you'll take forward? Carlos: One thing that is really positive is the fact that I've been at home and for my kids, I’ve got three kids. The four-year olds are twins and then our eldest is nine years old. Ideally, I would have been traveling and I would have been on tour or dancing or something so my time at home would have been limited but now, you know it's just been wonderful to spend time with them. To give them this, this really crucial time in their development where the Wolf pack is together. I think that that was brilliant, you know, and just relying on each other and spending time with each other. So, it's been great. The other thing that has been very positive is how, as a Company, we had to rely on, you know, being connected online, and this is something that I wanted to do anyway, but the whole of the pandemic has been accelerating that process. And so, we had to shift everything quickly online and therefore restructure the digital sector of the Company. And that has been great because, you know, we are gathering now more experience for streaming. We have been able to also have some income that way as well. And I think this is something that, going forward as well, we're going to continue. So, I think that that is a positive thing as well. Lou: Great. Yeah. Okay. Of course, you have your own Company, Acosta Danza back home in, in Cuba. I can only imagine that things are incredibly difficult there for them, and that it's really hard for you to be so, so long away from there. How are things there? Carlos: Now in Cuba it’s very, very, tough because, you know, we don't have the system in place, like here in England that you could just order via internet, anything you want and then bring it home. So, for food, it’s very challenging, you need to get stuck in the queue, get stuck in the queue for hours. There’s little food at the moment. The government implemented these monetary reforms, that it costs, a big, big inflation and then Cuba basically has no money actually now and obviously the pandemic cases, the cases keep raising and raising. Cuba is an Island, obviously and, you’re almost like stuck. And, well the whole world is like that, you can’t go anywhere anyway, but, but I think it's been very challenging for my dancers. We were on the [venue] performing and all of a sudden, you know, we had to be, we got sent home and it’s just really hard mentally, to keep the spirit going. And you prepare to do something, then they close it down and then you don't know when you're going to deliver it: that creation. We were in the middle of a creation in Cuba. And obviously that you know, it didn't happen and we don't know when it's going to happen now. So, all of that, I think in Cuba in general it’s very tough. Lou: Yeah, I can only imagine, and it must be really hard for you not to be able to go back there and share in some of that or support them, you know, close up. Carlos: Very difficult. Here and every-where you can connect with other people in zoom, via zoom and all of that but Cuba is one of the worst countries in the world. So, zoom doesn't work in there. So, you know, I can’t even have a meeting or see them regularly. We have to just WhatsApp or, you know, it’s just really tough and, I, you know, they are like family to me and you know, I'm just, I feel very unable to do anything for them. So, we just have to wait. Lou: The end can't come soon enough eh? Carlos: No that’s right. That's right. but we'll see, hopefully. Hopefully, you know, there are all the vaccines happening and all of that, you know, hopefully at least will give you, bring us some confidence and at least, you know, and governments that allow the theatre to get back on, on its feet again. Lou: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, there is hope isn't there, there is light. Okay. Well, your, your background in Cuba is well documented. I have to say, I think you're my first guest to have written an autobiography and had a movie made of it. So that's pretty cool. Well done! Nicely done! Your initial journey from your family home outside Havana, where money was tight and things were tough, I think it's fair to say. And your, initial unwilling rise to the top tier of ballet, it's a, you know, an amazing story. I'm interested in how your background influences your relationship with ballet and the privilege of it all. How does it, how does it make you feel as you work through the, as you've worked through the hierarchy? Actually, I have two questions for you. What was it that you, what was it that you fell in love with about ballet and what is it that you love and also what don't you love? So, first of all, what is it that you love about ballet? Carlos: I always like the sports. I wanted to be a football player growing up and so I didn't care so much about ballet, but, when I really realized what it was, it was, well, basically it was like being a sportsman you know, that level of athleticism, it’s in the way that they carry the women with one hand, all of that. The way, the ability to jump really high and do all these acrobatic steps. I love that very much and I also love music because, you know, in the eighties, I was into the sort of breakdancing scene. I love Michael Jackson’s music a lot and, and so, little by little, again, the fact that dancing, you know, with music and having that sports quality to, to ballet, I think that that's what did it for me. And also, because I’ve always been very, eh, quick in learning movement, you know, I was, I could catch any kind of dances quite rapidly.