The curtain pulls again to disclose a single dancer, lithe in white spandex, muscular energy held in elegant and triumphant pose. The crowd cheers and he cannot comprise a fast smile.

This night was at all times going to be extra for the followers than the critics, correctly. Comments about his age or athleticism are redundant. He remains to be a commanding presence and robust performer and, crucially, he continues to attach and talk together with his viewers, to thrill and encourage them.

Carlos Acosta dazzled on the world stage and now continues to champion dance as director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and his personal unbelievable Acosta Danza.

He performs in 5 items throughout a gala present starting from ballet’s most well-known moonlike lake to the streets of Havana.

The crowd roared at quite a few factors and surged to their toes on the finish – most not like the refined Royal Opera House, and all the higher for it.

The evening commences in regal fashion with Acosta within the white leotard and lyre of Balanchine’s Apollo, full of fiendishly tough footwork and intertwined poses together with his three muses (Marianela Nuñez, Celine Gittens and Lucy Maine). 

Act Two opens with the bar scene from Acosta’s personal Carmen, carried out by his super firm, Acosta Danza. Feet stomp and arms clap to percussive gypsy guitar and vocals. 

After the rowdy enjoyable you may have heard a pin drop as we held our breaths by the primary of two elegant pairings with Nuñez. The Swan Lake pas de deux is Odette and Siegfried’s first assembly, full of trembling turns and delicate embraces. Acosta demonstrates his enduring energy as a companion, permitting this most mesmerisingly magnificent of ballerinas to shine.

The foremost man’s nephew Yonah Acosta and his spouse Laurretta Summerscales delight within the grandstanding splendour of the Corsaire pas de deux earlier than the jaw-dropping lyricism and energy of Brandon Lawrence virtually steals the entire present in Valery Panov’s Liebstrod.

Clad within the tiniest of nude pants and curled on the ground, he unfurls into an more and more ecstatic exploration of motion. His lengthy limbs exult in lovely leaps and extensions earlier than lastly returning to his authentic place. Absolute perfection.

A barely overstuffed Act Two ends within the heavenly romantic swirl of the Manon bed room pas de deux. Acosta and Nuñez by no means danced this collectively however they’re attractive right here, giddily imbuing the fervour of younger love at 50 and 40, respectively.

Act Three is somewhat a combined bag. Acosta’s choreographical transforming of Fokine’s Dying Swan right into a plural model advantages from the elegant Zeleidy Crespo within the titular position however the addition of an angular, trendy male swan has by no means actually labored.

Acosta returns in one other highly effective piece of partnering to an electrifying Laura Rodriguez in Mermaid, Sid Larbi Charkaoui’s placing trendy meditation on a extremely dysfunctional relationship.

It segues seamlessly into an besides from Acosta’s debut choreographic (semi-autobiographical) piece Tocoroco. The stage throbs with Afro-Cuban rhythms as Acosta Danza return in infectious celebration, the person of the hour dancing joyously at their coronary heart.

For the extended, thunderous curtain name, he brings on his three daughters, each cute and an emblem of a person whose life’s work has at all times regarded to the longer term. No doubt he’ll nonetheless be celebrated in one other 50 years.

ACOSTA AT 50 IS AT THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE UNTIL JULY 30