Dancer Carlos Acosta Touring Cuba

Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta, principal guest artist of the Royal Ballet of London, will fulfil a longstanding desire with a national tour of Cuba that begins Sunday.

"It is a promise I made to myself ever since I premiered Tocororo here in 2003, my first choreography," Acosta told reporters. For various reasons, he had not been able to carry out such a tour until now, he added.

The first part of the tour will cover the cities of Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey and Cienfuegos. After a break, he will perform in the capital and in Pinar del Rio.

Acosta announced he would present a minimalist repertoire with new works.

The idea is to perform for the largest number of spectators possible and to create a dialogue with them through dance.

With that goal in mind, he chose pieces by Jerome Robbins and solos, including "Two," which he performed during the closing ceremony of the Havana International Ballet Festival.

He will be accompanied by Cuban cello player Amparo del Riego, who plays for the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba. She will play pieces by Russian composer Serguei Rachmaninov and Cuban Jose Maria Vitier.

In the second part of the tour, Acosta will include dancers from Danza Nacional de Cuba and the National Ballet, directed by Alicia Alonso, Cuba’s prima ballerina assoluta.

Acosta’s autobiography, which has been published in other countries, will be issued in Cuba by the publishing house of the Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC).

The dancer said he had designed the book as a journey from his childhood to the peak of his career, but that the Cuban edition was needed, because his memories had the flavor of Spanish, the language with which he identifies and in which his book was written.