Carlos Acosta in Santiago de Cuba

Our Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta kicks off his first national tour of Cuba last Sunday at the Heredia Theater in Santiago, fulfilling a longstanding desire of the artist and his fans.

The renowned artist, principal guest artist of the Royal Ballet of London, performed "Suite of dances," by Jerome Robbins, as the feature piece of the program, accompanied by Cuban cello player Amparo del Riego and ballerinas Viengsay Valdes and Laura Rios.

His tour will cover the cities of Camaguey on November 23, Cienfuegos on November 25 and Pinar del Rio on November 27, and conclude in Havana on November 30.

In statements to the press, the young dancer said performances in the country’s east, center and west were his settling of an old debt with his audience in Cuba, where his intensive and successful career is followed and admired.

This Cuban dancer has worked with prestigious companies such as the American Ballet Theatre, the Houston Ballet, the English National Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet.

After this long-awaited tour of Cuba, Acosta will return to the Royal Ballet to resume his regular performances with Giselle, Swan Lake, Manon, and the show Premier, which will be presented across the United Kingdom.

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.