Choreography
and libretto
Carlos Acosta
Music
Miguel Nunez
Tocororo
Carlos Acosta
Clarita
Veronica Corveas
The Moor
Alexander Varona
Soloists and corps
de ballet from
Danza Contemporanea
de Cuba
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Carlos Acosta
Tocororo - A Cuban Tale
London Coliseum
2 - 5 August 2006
Tocororo - A Cuban Tale, devised and performed by the great Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, is the story of a young boy's career from countryside poverty to life in the big city. It is a terrific show: witty, energetic, stylish, brilliantly paced, and virtuosically danced by Acosta and a group of his handpicked fellow Cubans.
Though Tocororo is sentimental and a tad clichéd in places, it is deeply moving. The boy's bewilderment, trepidation and loneliness on arriving in the city and being mocked for his balletic dance style by the streetwise hipsters whom he encounters there, could be one big pastiche. Instead, it is gripping - largely thanks to the emotional and technical artistry of the dancing, but also because of the sheer fascination of seeing classical ballet rub shoulders with salsa, multiple pirouetting, breakdancing, and other elements of Afro-Cuban dance culture.
As the itinerant boy masters the steps and rhythm and macho of street-dancing, and his uncertainty gives way to confidence, the condescension of the hipsters turns to stunned admiration - and, not surprisingly, the boy gets his girl, danced with tender lyricism by Veronica Corveas, who falls for his irresistible combination of power and grace, both of which Acosta possesses in spades. But this happens only after an extended struggle for recognition between the boy and the leader of the street dancers, the snake-hipped Alexander Varona, a mesmerising stage-presence with uncanny powers to project raw energy, menace, pride and Mafioso-macho - all while puffing a cigar to the pulse of his own dancing. Varona also leads his followers in some of the best crowd scenes I have ever seen in dance.
The live Cuban band on stage is slick, spontaneous, cocky - and it dialogues fascinatingly with the dancers.
The choreography isn't the most interesting; but the bravado, dedication and joy with which it is executed are so compelling that one almost doesn't care. Broadway would have a tough time bettering this. Simon May
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