:00:05. > :00:15.climbed by nearly 40% on last year. -- for this time. Stand by for
:00:15. > :00:17.
:00:17. > :00:22.HARDtalk comes from the Royal Ballet in central London. My guest
:00:22. > :00:28.is one of the world's greatest dancers, Carlos Acosta. He was born
:00:28. > :00:34.in Fidel Castro's Cuba. His father was a truck driver. For the last
:00:34. > :00:39.are two decades, he has been thrilling audiences around the
:00:39. > :00:44.world. In ballet, he says there is beauty and freedom, and also pain
:00:45. > :00:54.and sacrifice. Could that be a sign that his career is about to move in
:00:55. > :01:08.
:01:08. > :01:14.Carlos Acosta, welcome to HARDtalk. Right now, you are preparing for a
:01:14. > :01:20.performance of Romeo and Juliet in a new venue. That fascinates me. It
:01:20. > :01:28.is not a traditional ballet venue at all. 15,000 seats to fill in
:01:28. > :01:33.what is usually a rock and roll the venue. Are you daunted by that?
:01:33. > :01:42.think it will be a hard space to dance because we lose that intimacy
:01:42. > :01:48.that is needed for ballet. The ballet is a visual art. You have to
:01:48. > :01:55.be able to see it, not see it. You have to be close enough so you can
:01:55. > :02:02.connect with the ballet and the story and the expression and so on.
:02:02. > :02:07.They will have to rely on screening. Those people higher up, where ever
:02:07. > :02:11.they are, they can see what is going on. The idea is great. The
:02:11. > :02:16.idea is to reach out and make ballet accessible for everyone.
:02:16. > :02:21.This is a great idea. I really think that it is a really good
:02:21. > :02:29.cause. The have been dancing for more than 20 years. I suspect
:02:29. > :02:39.people have been talking to you about making ballet more accessible.
:02:39. > :02:44.Do you think it has changed in that respect? I think it has. I still
:02:44. > :02:54.think we should do more. The whole world, the world we live in today,
:02:54. > :02:59.has to be represented on stage. In our recent history, we need to push
:02:59. > :03:04.it to the limits to balance the situation, I feel, because every
:03:04. > :03:09.situation we represent on our stage at... When you see and ballet, I
:03:09. > :03:14.want to make sure that I can be a prince and everyone can be a prince
:03:14. > :03:21.and I think that can be fair and I think we should do more about that.
:03:21. > :03:25.You have been a Prince many times on stage. You get up on stage, you
:03:25. > :03:30.give people enormous pleasure with your performances and you go
:03:30. > :03:37.through a new talked about it very openly, incredible pain, but to do
:03:38. > :03:47.it. Playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, it makes you dance almost
:03:48. > :03:50.
:03:50. > :03:54."till I drop dead." You will feel like dying? It is wonderful here.
:03:54. > :04:01.These people have danced the role before, they know what I am talking
:04:01. > :04:11.about. It is part of my life. It is almost impossible to be 100% when
:04:11. > :04:14.
:04:14. > :04:20.you have to expose your body too many hours of hammering and jumping.
:04:20. > :04:25.I say that stance is a religion. All that word you have to put in
:04:25. > :04:35.just for the pleasure of the audience. Correct to make dance is
:04:35. > :05:00.
:05:00. > :05:06.You have said several times in the past that frankly, you get a little
:05:06. > :05:13.bit bored with some of the classical repertoire. You said Swan
:05:13. > :05:21.Lake was, there comes a point when you are not up for doing Swan Lake
:05:21. > :05:25.one more time. How do you keep the roles of fresh, keep it and you?
:05:25. > :05:34.Going back to Swan Lake, the problem is, after you have done it
:05:34. > :05:42.so much, there is no room for you to grow. You try to keep your love
:05:42. > :05:48.for as what people expect of you. - - keep your level. How many times
:05:48. > :05:55.can you do this one and keep it fresh? I feel I need challenges and
:05:55. > :06:01.right now, on my stage, Swan Lake does not challenge me. Is that one
:06:01. > :06:06.reason why you find it difficult in Cuba, looking at the state of
:06:06. > :06:13.ballet there. You have described it as being stuck with a very
:06:14. > :06:23.traditional, a small, conservative approach. A birth repertoire there
:06:23. > :06:31.has been stuck for a while. -- the repertoire there. I think it comes
:06:31. > :06:36.down to the artistic choices. It is not fair for the dancers. Dancers
:06:36. > :06:43.need to be challenged all the time. You need to bring new energy to the
:06:43. > :06:50.repertoire. Otherwise, if you only have to look forward to Swan Lake,
:06:50. > :06:56.a sleeping beauty, where will you go? The world out there is doing
:06:56. > :07:03.these wonderful works. This is the system that created year. If it was
:07:03. > :07:12.not for the disciplined and conservatism commitment in Cuba to
:07:12. > :07:16.old style ballet, you would not be the dancer you are. The system
:07:16. > :07:20.works and it is great. When you have the base, you need to keep on
:07:20. > :07:27.and keep going and you need to be part of what is going on out there
:07:27. > :07:32.in the world, with a new creations. When I am talking about Swan Lake
:07:32. > :07:36.as a classic, I am not saying it in disrespectful stock they have the
:07:36. > :07:43.most wonderful technique and the most basic form of dance. At the
:07:43. > :07:49.same time, you need to evolve. You have to project your dance to the
:07:49. > :07:54.future and to create new ways of expression, otherwise, we are stuck
:07:54. > :08:00.in a vehicle that has been created in the 1800s. Where do we go from
:08:00. > :08:05.now? We need to create our own vehicle. We want to talk about your
:08:05. > :08:10.creative vehicle. Before we go there, let us talk about Cuba for a
:08:10. > :08:15.little while longer. People watching this do not know your
:08:15. > :08:20.story. It is a remarkable story. It really hinges on your father. If
:08:20. > :08:27.your father had not forced you to go to ballet school, coming out of
:08:27. > :08:32.a poor neighbourhood, one of 11 children in a poor family, if he
:08:32. > :08:39.had not made that decision and forced you to go, your life would
:08:39. > :08:48.have been entirely different. father made me go best answer I was
:08:48. > :08:54.three years old. I was living in a very a run-down part of Havana. I
:08:54. > :08:58.was a street kid. There was this fashion craze about break dancing
:08:58. > :09:06.and I had this our own club of break dancing around eight or nine
:09:06. > :09:15.years odd. I did not like school very much. But I could dance. I
:09:15. > :09:20.could break dance. I used to do the Michael Jackson moves. My father
:09:20. > :09:24.saw I was heading towards delinquency so someone recommended
:09:24. > :09:29.this ballet school which was in the centre of the city and he did not
:09:29. > :09:34.think twice. The next thing I knew, I was in a ballet class. I really
:09:34. > :09:39.hated it. Anyone who does not know anything about ballet, when you
:09:39. > :09:48.start, you and nine years old and you start learning it, it can be
:09:48. > :09:53.the most tedious thing. All these movements, you are falling asleep.
:09:53. > :09:59.As a kid, you can run on the street and be play for, which is what I
:09:59. > :10:05.wanted to do. Yes, it was painful. Look at the progress she knew made.
:10:05. > :10:12.By 16 years old, you were winning international prizes in Europe.
:10:12. > :10:20.Just a couple of years before, you still hated it. What was this which
:10:20. > :10:25.that changed your mind? -- what was it. I saw a professional production
:10:25. > :10:30.for the first time. That was when I fell in love and with it. I was
:10:30. > :10:35.always told by my teachers that I had something. I could learn
:10:35. > :10:40.quickly. I liked that attention. For once, I felt like I could do
:10:40. > :10:44.something because I always had this complex that I was no good.
:10:44. > :10:49.Teachers would choreograph May, pick me, in front of a crowd of
:10:49. > :10:56.people. I liked the way I felt about this attention. I wanted
:10:56. > :11:03.Morar. That is why I began to have this love with dance. I realised it
:11:03. > :11:09.could change my life and my family's life. We think about the
:11:09. > :11:19.way you were groomed to be one of the great dancers. You had a great
:11:19. > :11:20.
:11:20. > :11:28.teacher. She is a figurehead of Cuban dance. For many years, her
:11:28. > :11:35.dance school was way Fidel Castro's students could express high art. It
:11:35. > :11:45.was a regimented and disciplined way. Did you find it oppressive,
:11:45. > :11:46.
:11:46. > :11:52.working with her? Not at all. She was the founder. Together with her
:11:52. > :11:58.ex-husband, they were the founders of the dance movement in Cuba. They
:11:58. > :12:08.found a source where everybody else came from and it is almost like a
:12:08. > :12:14.parents. I think she always had, she made the whole nation proud.
:12:14. > :12:19.You need to be very grateful for that. They are always going to be
:12:19. > :12:28.the founder of the movement and will always, in my case, they will
:12:28. > :12:32.You maintained a good relationship with her and for ballet and the
:12:32. > :12:38.Cuban government. It seems to me you were lucky in a way because
:12:38. > :12:45.many Cuban dances, quality dancers, have not been given the options you
:12:45. > :12:53.were given to pursue your career abroad. Trained at home and expand
:12:53. > :12:58.your horizons overseas. I was lucky. That is true. I feel
:12:58. > :13:04.for those people who felt they should go abroad in order to dance
:13:04. > :13:14.and feel fulfilled. Even this year, we had in Canada,
:13:14. > :13:17.
:13:17. > :13:20.five top dancers from the National Ballet defect.
:13:20. > :13:28.The tis a logical course. It is understandable and we need to
:13:28. > :13:38.change it. -- it is a logical course.
:13:38. > :13:39.
:13:39. > :13:46.If you don't have space to grow, what is the point? If all I have at
:13:46. > :13:52.the end of the day to keep me alive his dance, I'm going to learn
:13:52. > :14:02.something and evolve as an artist. If I don't have that, what is the
:14:02. > :14:09.
:14:09. > :14:13.point? I -- if you close that, there is no point.
:14:13. > :14:17.Because you walk this fine line, maintaining a good relationship
:14:17. > :14:22.with the government but pursuing your career overseas, have you feel
:14:22. > :14:26.when this year you are given the top prize in the country, the
:14:26. > :14:35.National Dance Prize, everyone salutes you and in the citation of
:14:35. > :14:41.the award, they call you an artist who loves the revolution - had you
:14:41. > :14:51.feel when you see those words? The revolution, I am a product of
:14:51. > :14:54.
:14:54. > :14:57.the revolution. I was very poor. You feel if you had been the same
:14:57. > :15:07.child brought up in the United Kingdom from that poor background,
:15:07. > :15:09.
:15:09. > :15:16.no way you could have been so successful?
:15:16. > :15:21.How would I buy my shoes and gear? My salary was able to maintain my
:15:21. > :15:25.entire family. The feel when you're dancing with
:15:25. > :15:30.stars from Russia and Eastern Europe, the United States, whatever,
:15:30. > :15:37.is there something Cuban and Latin about the way you do ballet?
:15:37. > :15:42.A I think so. Definitely! How do you define that?
:15:43. > :15:50.Cuban is a very eclectic race. We inherit so many cultures along the
:15:50. > :15:56.way, Spanish, African, Chinese - it is a melting pot. After being in
:15:56. > :16:02.the Caribbean with the Sun and the sea and the drums, you cannot help
:16:02. > :16:08.but bring been Cuban to your art form. At the end of the day,
:16:08. > :16:15.everyone has a different way of expressing love. We bring our own
:16:15. > :16:19.identity in to whatever role. If there is something distinctly
:16:19. > :16:23.Cuban and Latin about your art, it seems there is something complex
:16:24. > :16:29.going on in your life because your art has taken you an awful long way
:16:29. > :16:32.from Havana. You had said your hard still lies in Havana but the fact
:16:32. > :16:41.is your career choices have separated you from your family,
:16:41. > :16:46.from your city, from your country. I wonder how you deal with that?
:16:46. > :16:50.I have created many defence mechanisms. It is easier now. I
:16:50. > :16:55.have my fiancee. It is always great to have a partner.
:16:55. > :17:01.I have sorry to be personal but she is not Cuban.
:17:01. > :17:07.-- I am sorry. So you made a choice there too.
:17:07. > :17:12.You're wrote an autobiography entitled No Way Home.
:17:12. > :17:22.Are you moving further away? Home is the neighbourhood where I
:17:22. > :17:26.was born. Of course I will never be able to go back. I'm dealing with
:17:26. > :17:34.all those thoughts and memories, trying not to think that much and
:17:34. > :17:41.trying to concentrate on moving forward. I am grateful, at the end
:17:42. > :17:46.of the day. Artists' pay a price and that is the price. At the same
:17:46. > :17:53.time, I would not do it any other way.
:17:53. > :18:01.We talked about Alicia Alonso. She is the great figurehead of Cuban
:18:01. > :18:05.Ballet. When she finally retires, would you like to be the next
:18:05. > :18:15.leader of the Cuban National Ballet?
:18:15. > :18:19.
:18:19. > :18:28.I always say no. The National Ballet of Cuba is Alicia Alonso's
:18:28. > :18:34.work, her legacy. I want to find a new way, a bridge from Cuba to the
:18:34. > :18:38.world. If you want to study dance or anything you want to do, you can
:18:38. > :18:45.come there, not ask permission from anyone. I want to have my own
:18:45. > :18:49.company to try and formed the dances of today. So a classical
:18:49. > :18:54.dancer can move from any dance style.
:18:54. > :18:58.You want to find a fusion? We talk about your training that is deeply
:18:58. > :19:04.classical and conservative but it seems, increasingly in your dance,
:19:04. > :19:11.life, Korea, you want to find more bridges to Latin beats and salsa
:19:11. > :19:16.and so one. This is the world. It is unlimited.
:19:16. > :19:22.A classical ballet dancer, if you are a principal dancer, you need to
:19:22. > :19:31.be able to dance anything. Contemporary, the larger, you can
:19:31. > :19:36.even incorporate couple where that we see in contemporary dance, plus
:19:36. > :19:43.dance classical at the highest level. That is the dancer we are
:19:43. > :19:51.looking for, who can move anywhere. This is the dance I would like to
:19:51. > :19:54.form. Do not limit yourself to one tradition and 1 formation.
:19:54. > :20:02.How much longer will you keep dancing.
:20:02. > :20:10.As long as I can still deliver freshness and I don't make a fool
:20:10. > :20:16.of myself because I respect my audience too much. If I feel like I
:20:16. > :20:24.still have something to give. Maybe three more years. It all depends.
:20:25. > :20:32.Some times it seems your mood catches up with you. You have
:20:32. > :20:36.talked about the pain in your hips, ask yourself whether it was worth
:20:37. > :20:40.it. You have said that the art is beautiful and someone has to do it.
:20:40. > :20:50.The point is it does not have to be you.
:20:50. > :20:54.
:20:54. > :21:04.I think I have what it takes. I think sometimes it is difficult to
:21:04. > :21:04.
:21:04. > :21:09.know when it is the right time. Hopefully I still represent the
:21:09. > :21:19.quality people like from my dancing. It is not very far away now.
:21:19. > :21:21.
:21:21. > :21:27.Really? You say that with a smile.
:21:27. > :21:34.Ballet is like an old marriage. You have this partner and kids and you
:21:34. > :21:44.spend 30 years married and for some reason, you don't feel like you can
:21:44. > :21:52.
:21:52. > :21:56.be together any more. That is ballet. It is very difficult to
:21:56. > :22:02.assert that truth. On the other hand, you have taken
:22:02. > :22:07.yourself in different directions. I saw reports you were writing a book.
:22:07. > :22:13.You have written an autobiography but you were writing a book about
:22:13. > :22:18.Cuba and facing on the story of particular individuals and family
:22:18. > :22:22.going all away from slavery in the 1,800s all the way to present day.
:22:22. > :22:28.What has happened to that question markets is nearly complete.
:22:28. > :22:34.I am still in editing. Sometimes you don't know if it is any good.
:22:34. > :22:40.You need readers. I have written in Spanish and it is difficult to find
:22:40. > :22:44.readers here to read in Spanish. It is a work in progress. It is
:22:44. > :22:53.already finished but we are changing the structure. I think it
:22:53. > :23:00.is something good. I want the reader to have fun and give some
:23:00. > :23:07.sense of Cuban history but it is completely fictional.
:23:07. > :23:11.We say it is fiction -- you say it is fiction but it has made you
:23:11. > :23:18.think about your homeland, its history to its president. Just the
:23:18. > :23:20.other day, Obama was talking about change in Cuba and said, we see
:23:20. > :23:25.change but we need to see a whole lot more.
:23:25. > :23:30.Do you think Cuba is on the brink of, maybe, a Cuban spring -
:23:30. > :23:35.fundamental change? I think it is changing but it is up
:23:35. > :23:40.to Cubans to change it. Cuba is our home. It is wrong for anybody to go
:23:40. > :23:47.to your home and tell you how you should rearrange the furniture. It
:23:47. > :23:54.is up to Cubans to change it. I think it is. Not as rapidly as