# Acosta Danza, by Cuban Carlos Acosta, celebrates ten years of "dedication" on stage **Date:** 09/05/2025 The Acosta Danza company, under the tutelage of prestigious Cuban dancer and choreographer Carlos Acosta, celebrates this weekend in Havana a decade of "sacrifice and dedication" on stage with its fusion of classical and contemporary techniques. "It has been ten years of sacrifice, of dedication, of accompanying Carlos and making his dreams come true. We are also happy about what has been achieved," emphasizes in dialogue with EFE the artistic director of the company, Yaday Ponce. Acosta (Havana, 1973) founded the company in late 2015, although he made his artistic debut in April 2016 amid the cultural boom in Havana that came hand in hand with the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States. For Ponce, "those beginnings were very difficult: getting people to understand what Carlos wanted, a classical dancer, putting together a contemporary company". "Understanding that took a bit of work, but I think we achieved it," she comments at the Acosta Danza headquarters, in the Havana neighborhood of Vedado, during a rehearsal prior to the premiere of the commemorative anniversary season, called 'A Decade in Motion', which takes place in Havana this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A personal project Acosta, current director of the Royal Ballet of Birmingham, is considered by critics as one of the greatest references in world dance. Trained at the National Ballet School of Havana, he consolidated from an early age a career backed by numerous distinctions, including the 1990 Prix De Lausanne. He retired from the stage in 2016 after 28 years of professional dancing with prestigious companies in Cuba and around the world. It was then that he founded his own company, bringing to life a personal project in which he appropriated the techniques of classical ballet and combined them, with skill and imagination, with the freedom of movement characteristic of modern dance. Ponce, who has accompanied the prestigious dancer since the beginning, stresses that "he is a present director all the time," even though he currently resides in the United Kingdom. "He is a figure and an example for me, not only as a dancer, but also as a director. He is very demanding: with cleanliness, with the repertoire,... with everything. He is in constant communication, present all the time, even though he is not with us," she explains. Anniversary season Each of the 14 dancers who currently make up Acosta Danza -all young people trained at his own academy- spread energy and passion while rehearsing the four pieces with which they will celebrate ten years. The evening includes the performance of '98 días' by Spanish-Venezuelan choreographer Javier de Frutos, inspired by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca's stay in Cuba; 'The Equation', by Cuban Georges Céspedes; and 'Call', choreographed by Goyo Montero. The show closes with 'From tip to end', by Ponce herself, based on the original piece by Cuban choreographer Alexis Fernández, a work nominated in 2022 for the Laurence Olivier Award in the United Kingdom. About this last piece in particular, the young director explains to EFE that it is part of the repertoire "since the company was founded, and it is a reflection of the Cuban, a representation of what Cuba is, of how the Cuban feels, of his way of moving". "It is integrative because it includes dancers, musicians, audiovisual materials. It is what Carlos wanted when creating the company in Cuba: that all manifestations of art would be integrated into the show and give the world knowledge of all that Cuban talent," she states. Various recognitions endorse the company's work, including the 2025 National Dance Prize from the United Kingdom as Best Medium-Format Company. For Ponce, her personal "greatest achievement" has been the training of her own dancers: "having an artistic-educational unit as succession for the company with young people from all over Cuba".