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Dance review A feelgood family classic with added Cuban flavour
The Guardian
|November 05, 2024
In 1969, Fidel Castro banned Christmas in Cuba. The country had already been declared atheist, and Santa a foreign import. Festivities were reinstated in 1998, but Carlos Acosta, growing up in 1980s Havana, never got to celebrate.
He is making up for it now with Nutcracker in Havana, which transplants the classic ballet from its snowy Germanic setting to sunny Cuba. It's very much still the Nutcracker - a trad, family-friendly show - just with added flavour.
At a little under two hours, including the interval, there is no messing about. We get straight into the big tunes, and Clara (a charming Laura Rodriguez) reels off a series of fouettés in the first scene.
What makes it work is Pepe Gavilondo's Cubanification of the Tchaikovsky score. A mark of the original's greatness is how well it has been adapted, from Duke Ellington's
This story is from the November 05, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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