CARLOS ACOSTA CBE DIRECTOR

Born in Havana in 1973, Carlos trained at The National Ballet School of Havana in Cuba. After winning a succession of awards, including the 1990 Prix De Lausanne, he went on to dance professionally with the world’s most prestigious companies, with London’s Royal Ballet becoming his home. Carlos retired from classical ballet in 2016, after 28 years, having performed almost every classical role from Spartacus to Romeo.

Carlos created many award-winning shows throughout his ballet career including Tocororo, and Carlos Acosta and Friends of the Royal Ballet. He also choreographed the Royal Ballet productions of Don Quixote and Carmen, plus the latest Guys and Dolls production for the West End. He has also written two books, including a work of fiction Pig’s Foot, and his honest and heartfelt autobiography No Way Home.

Yuli, a film inspired by his life, premiered at the San Sebastian, Havana and Berlin Film Festivals to critical acclaim before its premiere and general release in April 2019.

The culture and history of Carlos’s homeland have been important influences throughout his career and will continue to be so following his establishment of his own dance company – Acosta Danza – in 2016.

The company tours the world with its vibrant combination of classical and contemporary, fused with Cuban elements of dance. In 2017 Carlos opened his first Dance Academy through the Carlos Acosta International Dance Foundation. The Foundation gives young dancers the same opportunities that he himself benefited from, by providing a three-year dance training programme, free at the point of delivery in an inspirational setting.

Carlos’s extraordinary contribution to dance continues to this day and he was recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2014 when he was awarded a CBE. In 2018 Carlos received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award from The Royal Academy of Dance in recognition of his standing as one of the most influential figures in dance today and in 2019 the Critics’ Circle bestowed Carlos with their Annual Award for Outstanding Services to the Arts.

In January 2020 Carlos became Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

His athleticism, the sheer joy of dancing as well as his tremendous ability to convey emotion, inspired a generation of dancers across the globe. His very touching story and the obstacles he has overcome speak for themselves.

Dominic Antonucci Assistant Director

Born in Athens, Ohio, and brought up in Akron, Dominic Antonucci, Assistant Director, attended the Nan Klinger School of Dance and the School of American Ballet. He performed with American Ballet Theatre from 1991 to 1994, joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1994 as a Soloist, and was promoted to Principal in 2003. He was appointed Ballet Master in 2009. Dominic danced all of the leading male repertoire and was particularly prominent in the ballets of Sir Peter Wright and Sir David Bintley. Notable roles included: Colas in La Fille mal gardée, Franz in Coppélia, The Prince and Drosselmeyer

Koen Kessels Music Director

has conducted for companies including NYCB, La Monnaie, Brussels, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Dutch National Ballet, Vienna State Opera, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Real, Madrid, Opera Vlaanderen, New National Theatre, Tokyo, Kungliga Operan Stockholm and La Scala Milano.

in The Nutcracker, Sir Edward Elgar in Enigma Variations and Henry Hobson in Hobson’s Choice

Dominic has been a guest teacher at National Ballet of Japan, Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Northern Ballet, English National Ballet, Adventures in Motion Pictures and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. He was a judge of the ballet final at the BBC Young Dancer competition 2015. Away from the studio, Dominic has written dozens of articles for the Dancing Times and Dance Europe. He was appointed Assistant Director in 2021.

Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet since 2010, he has also been Music Director of The Royal Ballet since September 2015. He made his Royal Ballet debut in 2008 conducting The Nutcracker, and has since conducted such repertory as Giselle, Symphony in C, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, and the world premieres of Raven Girl, Woolf Works, Runner, Strapless, Untouchable, Frankenstein, Flight Pattern and Symphonic Dances. He appears regularly with Paris Opéra and

His ballet repertory includes Le Parc, Coppélia, La Source, Sylvia, Proust, Cinderella, Hurlevent, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins, Giselle, Bolero, La Valse, Suite en Blanc, L’Arlésienne, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Apollo, Les Noces, Prodigal Son, Jewels, Romeo and Juliet, Carmina burana, The Prince of the Pagodas, The Tempest (Sally Beamish), Don Quixote and Les Sylphides. DVD releases include Proust, Cinderella, Coppélia, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins and La Petite Danseuse with Paris Opéra Ballet, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Frankenstein with The Royal Ballet, and Cinderella with Birmingham

Royal Ballet. Opera repertory includes Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin (Antwerp Opera), Glass’s Satyagraha (Cherkaoui), Hosokawa’s Hanjo (Anne Teresa De Keerssmaeker), Lens and Cave’s Shell Shock (Cherkaoui; La Monnaie, Brussels), and operas by Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini, Britten and Maxwell Davies among others.

Kessels is an honorary professor of the University of Birmingham, Artistic Director of Inspiratum and on the artistic direction team at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. As Artistic Director of HERMESensemble he has collaborated with such composers as Abrahamsen, Bartholomée, Benjamin, Brewaeys, Ferrari, Henderickx, Hosokawa, Van Hove, Zev Gordon, Dusapin, Huber, Maresz, Murail, Pagh-Paan, Reich, Van Parys, Saariaho, Talbot, Turnage and Yared. Koen Kessels studied at the Antwerp Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music.