Dance review: Acosta Danza: Debut, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

For years, Carlos Acosta entertained audiences with his technical prowess and emotional resonance. So now that he's on the other side of the stage, running a company, training dancers and building a repertoire, he knows exactly what to look for.

Acosta Danza

Acosta Danza: Debut, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh ****

This first UK tour from Acosta Danza is not without its flaws, and inevitably with a five-piece programme there are strengths and weaknesses – but the Cuban clearly still knows how to please a crowd.

Coincidentally, the evening’s true highlights both come in duet form. Carlos Luis Blanco and Alejandro Silva are virtually naked for The Crossing Over Niagara, meaning every measured step, balance, lift and lean ripples through their body for all to see.

In 24 minutes, they cover little space, yet it’s utterly mesmerising. Inspired by Charles Blondin’s tightrope walk across Niagara Falls with a man on his shoulders, choreographer Marianela Boán hands the dancers one complex challenge after another, and they rise to them all.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s superb Mermaid, danced by Acosta himself and Marta Ortega, has a different beauty. As a man desperate to support the eponymous mythical creature, as she teeters in pointe shoes, her body as fluid as the water she belongs in, Acosta is still a remarkable stage

presence.

Elsewhere, Justin Peck’s Belles-Lettres and Goyo Montero’s Imponderable proved how fluently Acosta’s dancers can speak both classical ballet and contemporary dance, while Jorge Crecis’s Twelve, in which illuminated plastic bottles are thrown from dancer to dancer with increasing difficulty, showed they’re not adverse to a little circus fun either.