Carlos Acosta

New York, I Love You

New York, I Love You delves into the intimate lives of New Yorkers as they grapple with, delight in and search for love. Journey from the Diamond District in the heart of Manhattan, through Chinatown and the Upper East Side, towards the Village, into Tribeca, and Brooklyn as lovers of all ages try to find romance in the Big Apple.

Our Kind of Traitor

A young Oxford academic and his attorney girlfriend holiday in Morocco. They bump into a Russian millionaire who owns a peninsula and a diamond watch. He wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the lovers on a tortuous journey to the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's intelligence establishment, to Paris and the Alps.

La Bayadère

Marius Petipa’s exotic ballet set in legendary India is a story of love, death and vengeful judgement. Natalia Makarova’s sumptuous recreation of Petipa’s choreography, with atmospheric sets by Pier Luigi Samaritini and beautiful costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, stars Tamara Rojo as the Bayadère (temple dancer) Nikiya, Carlos Acosta as Solor, and Marianela Nuñez as Gamzatti, whose alluring presence challenges Solor’s love for Nikiya. Live performance recorded in 2009.

The Sellouts

A 1972 television adaptation of Los Vendidos, a one-act play by Chicano playwright Luis Valdez, a founding member of El Teatro Campesino. The play examines and dramatizes stereotypes of Mexican Americans in California and how they are treated by local, state, and federal governments.

Carlos Acosta: Spartacus

Internationally acclaimed as the greatest male dancer of his generation, Carlos Acosta stars as the rebel slave in the most spectacular of Soviet ballets. Filmed in Paris after triumphant performances in Moscow and London, the Bolshoi's classic production presents the Cuban star at the height of his physical and dramatic powers -- as the greatest Spartacus of our time.

Manon (The Royal Ballet)

The Royal Ballet performs a production of Manon, starring Tamara Rojo in the title role with the world-famous dancer Carlos Acosta as her lover Des Grieux. In decadent 18th century Paris, the young, beautiful and naive Manon is torn between a life of privilege and luxury with the wealthy Monsieur GM or love with the poor student Des Grieux. Manon has become one the Royal Ballet's signature works since its creation by choreographer Kenneth MacMillan in 1974. This typically sumptuous production is designed by Nicholas Georgiadis and staged by Monica Mason and Monica Parker.

Coppélia (The Royal Ballet)

Coppélia, a mechanical doll made by the toy-maker Dr. Coppelius, is so life-like that some believe she is his daughter. The mistake leads to intrigue and jealousy in love. Directed by Ross MacGibbon, with Leanne Benjamin and Carlos Acosta.

Day of the Flowers

Two young, strong-willed Scottish sisters, one a left-wing activist, the other a most-popular-girl-in-school type, take their late father's ashes to Cuba, the site of many family legends of his services to the Revolution. Arriving in Havana, the two women promptly lose the ashes and go through a series of misadventrues - both romantic and dangerous - to try to retrieve them. A colourful and wryly humourous tale of cross-cultural misunderstandings and lost illusions.

Yuli

Yuli is the nickname given to Carlos Acosta by his father, Pedro, who considers him the son of Ogun, an African god and a fighter. As a child Yuli avoids discipline and education, learning from the streets of an impoverished and abandoned Havana. His father, however, has other ideas, and knowing that his son has a natural talent for dance, sends him to the National Ballet School of Cuba. Despite his repeated escapes and initial poor behaviour, the boy is inevitably drawn to the world of dance, and begins to shape his legendary career from a young age, becoming the first black dancer to be cast in some of the most prestigious ballet roles, originally written for white dancers, in companies such as the Houston Ballet or the Royal Ballet in London.

Don Quixote (The Royal Ballet)

Carlos Acosta's first venture directing one of ballet's 19th century classics was eagerly anticipated, as was his own starring role in the production (as Basilio), opposite the Argentinian Royal Ballet principal Marianella Nuñez (Kitri). Still built on Petipa's original choreography, Acosta's clear dramatic structure and vivid stage action gave the ‘boy gets girl despite her father’ story a more convincing air than usual, with Don Quixote's parallel obsession with Dulcinea-Kitri coherently woven into the plot.

Giselle

The peasant girl Giselle discovers the true identity of her lover Albrecht – and that he is promised to another. This is one of The Royal Ballet’s most loved and admired productions, faithful to the spirit of the 1841 original yet always fresh at each revival. This performance features former Bolshoi star and now Royal Ballet Principal Natalia Osipova in a breath-taking interpretation of the title role.

Royal Opera House: Don Quixote

Don Quixote and his servant Sancho Panza set out to have a chivalrous adventure. They meet Kitri and Basilio, a young couple who cannot marry because Kitri's father is determined to marry her off to the wealthy Gamache. Don Quixote decides to intervene. It was on stage 15 February—4 April 2019 as part of the Winter 2018/19 season.

La Fille mal gardée

Ever since its triumphant premiere in 1960, Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardee has been treasured as one of his happiest creations - his artistic tribute to nature, and an expression of his feelings for his beloved Suffolk countryside. Marianela Nunez and Carlos Acosta perfectly portray the young lovers Lise and Colas, determined to thwart the plans of Widow Simone to marry off her wayward daughter to Alain, the simple son of wealthy Farmer Thomas. Osbert Lancaster's colourful, picture-book designs, along with Ferdinand Herold's tuneful score, arranged by John Lanchbery, provide the perfect setting for Ashton's blissfully bucolic ballet, complete with haywain, pony, maypole and ribbons, a cockrel and his chickens and, of course, the famous clog dance, here wonderfully led by William Tuckett as the irascible but lovable Widow Simone.

La casa bruciata

1998 Made-for-TV Italian film.

Darcey's Ballet Heroes

60-minute film in which ballet star Darcey Bussell undertakes a very personal journey to meet the heroes and dancers who transformed male ballet.

Three Ballets by Kenneth MacMillan: Elite Syncopations/The Judas Tree/Concerto

"MacMillan's vision has been vital in shaping The Royal Ballet's style and repertory, and what better way to appreciate his art than with this rare chance to experience three contrasting works in a single performance. Abstract, dramatic, humorous - this programme gives a wonderfully varied introduction not just to MacMillan's work but to the beauty and dramatic power of ballet itself. Concerto, to Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, contrasts moments of exuberance and elegiac reflection. The Judas Tree places a single woman among 13 men to enact a harrowing event that is recognizably contemporary but with biblical overtones. Elite Syncopations completes the programme with a sparkling evocation of a dance hall that brings ragtime rhythms to the dance, and a ragtime band to the stage.

Romeo & Juliet - The Royal Ballet

Carlos Acosta dances as one of the two star-crossed lovers in Shakespeare's timeless tragedy, presented with the classic Kenneth MacMillan choreography and beautifully staged by The Royal Ballet. In this perennial favourite, Carlos Acosta dances alongside Tamara Rojo in a celebrated stage partnership. The drama of the doomed lovers is set against the ravishing sets and costumes designs of Nicholas Georgiadis.

Dance on Film: BBC Introducing Arts

Acclaimed dancer Carlos Acosta introduces a new generation of film makers who use b-boying, ballet and contemporary dance to tell their stories. Subjects range from dancing in a bingo hall, acid attacks, body image and wellbeing and the mystical world of baby eels. Each is a remarkable fusion of dance and film. Anatomy of a Crooked Spine; Blast; Elver; Full House; I Am Soldier; I Dance Best with You; Inside; Inside We Break; Manmade; Petals and Pain; Scapelands; We Are Ready Now; We Are Always Here; Do I Have Free Will?

Don Quixote (The Royal Ballet) 2022

In a new production created especially for Birmingham Royal Ballet, Don Quixote introduces us to Cervantes’ famous knight himself, lovers Kitri and Basilio, and a host of supporting characters. As the Don sets out on a quest to track down his true love, with his loyal friend and servant Sancho Panza at his side, he finds himself embroiled in an unlikely adventure of love and dreams.

Pura Sangre

Pura Sangre is a Venezuelan telenovela that was produced by and seen on Radio caracas Television. It was written by Julio César Marmol and directed by Olegario Barrera. This telenovela lasted 168 episodes and was distributed internationally by RCTV International.