The Manchester International Festival
By Julie Burns

28 june-15 July

Dance featuring Carlos Acosta, Viensgay Valdes, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Danza Contemporanea and the Tocorora Dance Company, 13-14th July.

First, hats off to this innovative, risk-taking celebration: the world’s first festival dedicated to original and new international arts and culture. The three-week long event comprised commissions across stage and screen, visual arts to orchestral works, creative debate to dazzling dance.

To secure Carlos Acosta in his own series of firsts was indeed a coup. In this, his first visit to Manchester, The Royal Ballet’s shining star was on top form – but sadly only starred in half of the mixed bill.

Filled with more hip physical theatre, contemporary and Latin American influence than the ballet he’s loved for, the dance fusion programme did however prove a shrewd move. The audience at the Lowry in Salford Quays was left gasping for more.

Inside the hushed and packed Lyric theatre, a brief company overture in carnival mood pre-empted an intriguing, abstract duet, K20s. To a sparse soundtrack spanning Tricky, High Tone and the Gorillaz, choreographer/costumer Osnel Delgado and Edson Cabrera of Danza Contemporanea delivered a quirky but over-long number on the nature of everyday chaos. Interpreted as the burden of keeping a briefcase in order, one personified the case itself (complete with neat handle on seat of trousers), while the other was the human carrier. In seamless Ballet Boyz lifts and bends style, it made the point that in the end, man can become his own case history.

In much-anticipated contrast, the classic 1856 Joseph Mazilier ballet, Le Corsaire, was performed as a special one-off between Carlos and ballerina Viensgay Valdes. In choreography by Alicia Alonso after the Marius Petipa original, the interlinking male and female solo sections were designed to show what each can do. Though Valdez had been described as fast and flashy in last year’s Sadlers Wells’ Don Quixote, for example, in this pas de deux – not to mention the whole programme – Carlos was in a league of his own. His panther-like prowess, at 34, defies you not to wax lyrical. Of course he’s an excellent technician: his human skill lies in infusing such roles with a soaring joie de vivre.

Hurtling back to contemporary realms, we also saw the world premier of Danza Contemporanea’s La Ecuacion/Equation. A solo set within a steel box frame melded into duet, trio, then three female, one male, quartet, adding up into various permutations of ‘I’, ‘You,’ ‘Him’ and ‘Us’. This built the momentum into a swirling, hypnotic state - a funky chase of movement to a hip-hop syncopation (composition by Afro rock’s Alfonso X).

Rightly placed as the finale, another premiere, The Tocororo Suite, edited Acosta’s semi-autobiographical and self-choreographed dance show, Tocororo. Never having seen this in full – unlike fan Fidel Castro in 2003 – I think it’s a moot point as to how much was diluted. However, cute crowd-pleasing veneer aside, its salient points of social realism remained: the outsider coping with big city life; the transformative (dance) power of love; the transplanted Billy Elliott rags to riches story.

A dance-off between classical Carlos as Tocororo and his hip shaking, cigar chomping street rival gave an engaging intro. His all-round ability is soon unleashed in a simple but chemistry-gelling duet with his local love Clarita (Veronica Corveas). Fun to see Carlos let loose in traditional vein, from folk to hip-hop. In Tocororo’s second dance-off with the Moor (characterful Alexander Varona), the status between the two shifts. Aggression from the latter is an undercurrent but happily dance vibrancy, not violence, wins the day. Cue the celebrations, displaying fizzy physicality from the 18-strong Tocororo company, authentic against a live Cuban band.

A wonderful false ending and double curtain call ensued, before the cast emerged to jump into the delighted audience. Led by a clearly revelling Carlos doing a Cuban version of a conga round the rows, it earned them a standing ovation. Balletic pyrotechnics apart, his greatest feat by far is to impart the feeling of joy behind dance. A genuine role model in every respect.

Limited to just three performances, this was in effect the only true dance showcase in over 25 festival commissions. Admittedly when you have Acosta, arguably the best in the world, quality counts over quantity.

The only other movement-based productions were Monkey: Journey to the West (28 June-7 July, Palace Theatre) and For All the Wrong Reasons (2-14 July, Contact Theatre). The former, was a ground-breaking collaboration between director Chen Shi-Zheng, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, artists behind big virtual band, the Gorillaz. Based on an ancient Chinese legend of the enlightenment seeking Monkey King, it translated into an enchanting animation- meets-action circus opera spectacular, featuring acrobats and performing martial artists. The latter combined a witty mix of theatre and some modern dance in a fresh reflection of life’s milestones: childhood and death, laughter and pathos. Created through cast improvisation, there was an instant spontaneity to Lies Pauwel’s work. A rising star in European theatre, here Pauwel swapped the more oblique themes of her genre for familiar English traditions such as cricket and Blackpool.

With the festival’s focus in this launch year not unreasonably on Manchester’s pivotal music scene, maybe in two years’ time the next could revolve round dance? The city that led the Industrial Revolution looks like it can head the field in any cultural innovation. Definitely one to watch.