Carlos Acosta - On Before — Outline Norwich

He's back! The world's favourite dancer, Carlos Acosta CBE, returned this week to Norwich Theatre Royal for another two performances of ‘On Before’, the show originally conceived in 2010 and danced with his then Royal Ballet colleague Zenaida Yanowsky. Now featuring Laura Rodríguez from Acosta Danza, this revised edition of On Before first visited Norwich Theatre Royal last summer, just as the live arts were tentatively crawling out from under the stone of coronavirus. Twelve months later, in a continuation of an exciting co-production between Norwich Theatre and Valid Productions, Acosta and Rodríguez returned to the city ahead of the show's European summer tour.

As we took our seats, the sound of falling rain was accompanying a video, being projected onto the stage curtain, of raindrops running down a window. After over a month of drought, and record-breaking temperatures, this seemed almost as welcoming as the prospect of seeing Carlos Acosta back in Norwich.

‘On Before’ is a collection of previously danced pieces that, together, formed a personal journey for Carlos Acosta, and is dedicated as a tribute to his late mother. Each piece has its own message and resonance, but they collectively knit together and tell the story of a doomed relationship between a man and a woman. It is intended to serve as an acknowledgment of love and loss, and to the resilience of the human spirit.

The show opens with the title piece, a duet originally created by William Tuckett for Zenaida Yanowsky and William Trevitt, with music by John Adams and an Evangelist speech that repeatedly references the story of Jesus in the synagogue, healing the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. There is an overwhelming sense of togetherness and tenderness in the twisting and entwining of the movements between Acosta and Rodríguez, which contrast starkly with the evangelical rant of the preacher.

Miguel Altunaga's 'Memoria' is danced by a pantalon-clad Acosta to a stirring electronic soundtrack by Fernando Corona, with rising and falling shapes inspired by martial art movement, and a sudden shift of colour and pace during a short segment filled with Cuban hip-hop and street dance.

Rodríguez takes on the role of the mythological bird with a human head in Yury Yanowsky's 'Sirin'. Originally created for his sister Zenaida, the role requires a lightness of touch, together with grace and elegance, and just a smidgen of humour in the whimsical shaking of the tail feathers.

The first half concludes with a show-stopping solo from Acosta as he dances Russell Maliphant's 'Two'. Performed within a square of light, and exploring the relationships between movement, music and light, Acosta's hands and feet form tracers of light against the blackness of the stage. With a pounding soundtrack by Andy Cowton, and the icy cool contortions of Acosta, I was reminded of that Guinness advert featuring the white horses in the surf. As a climax to the first half of the show, it was certainly a case of good things coming to those who wait.

Laura Rodríguez has matured into a dancer with a powerful sense of strength and grace. Both are on display in her performance of Kim Brandstrup's 'Footnote to Ashton', the piece that begins the second half of the show. Neither a footnote, nor particularly reminiscent of Sir Frederick Ashton, this gentle piece performed to music by Handel, and danced around a floor framed with candles, does give us a chance to really appreciate the litheness, the flexibility and the control in Rodríguez' movement. She captures beautifully the pain and despair of a woman betrayed, laced with powerful moments of almost awkward silence. Her performance has an almost operatic quality.

'Falling Deep Inside' is a an arty slo-mo monochrome film shot at 800 frames per second, and featuring a bare-chested Acosta and Rodríguez being doused with water. Created by Estudio 50, and intended to juxtapose the agony and ecstasy of human relationships, I was happy for it to be supplanted by the live-action intimacy of Acosta and Rodríguez in Beatriz Garcia and Raúl Reinoso's duet, 'Nosotros', with its reflective portrayal of the messiness of human relationships; and by the geometric currents contained within 'Hand Duets', choreographed by George Céspedes and Carlos Acosta, and featuring aspecially commissioned soundtrack from Cuban composer Omar Puente.

The evening concluded with 'O Magnum Mysterium', part-dance, part-choral and co-choreographed by Acosta and Zenaida Yanowsky to music by Morten Lauridsen. Sung by a locally sourced choir, and danced as a solemn and reflective duet, this final piece suddenly drew together all the spiritual threads of the whole evening's performance. It also explained the recurring appearance of the troupe of dark-clad figures that had been silently traversing the stage at the beginning and end of each piece.

'On Before' is a moving and powerful programme of dance, made even more special by the presence of the legend that is Carlos Acosta, and also by the beauty and grace of Laura Rodríguez, a star still in her ascendancy.

A big thank you to Stephen Crocker and everyone at Norwich Theatre for their continuing commitment to dance, and during such difficult times. The rapturous and deserved applause that they will have heard from tonight's packed auditorium will surely have been music to their ears.