Carlos Acosta’s Carmen review – a giddy Cuban tragedy

Sadler’s Wells, London
Bursting with upfront energy, Acosta Danza’s contemporary mashup is lively but light on emotive moments

The problem is, Don José, she’s just not that into you. Sure, she loves it when you spin her in multiple pirouettes, or sweep her over your shoulder, but for this Carmen (Laura Rodríguez) it’s never more than in-the-moment fun, she’s all spirit and impulse and impressively carefree dancing. All it takes is the appearance of a hunky toreador and off she runs, towards tragedy.

It’s a story that’s been told countless times, many of them in dance, since the original Prosper Mérimée novella in 1845. This Carmen was created by Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta and it’s an expansion of a one-act ballet he made for the Royal Ballet in 2015, set to Rodion Shchedrin’s orchestration of Bizet’s opera score. Now it’s a full evening, danced by his Havana-based company Acosta Danza, with some added Cuban music, and its lively spirit is much better suited to the Cuban dancers who easily inhabit the world on stage.