Moving dance performance from Carlos Acosta

'On Before' is touching homage to late mother

Intimate, passionate and emotive - Carlos Acosta’s ‘On Before’ may be his most personal piece yet, portraying the destructive relationship between one man and one woman. Raindrops projected onto the stage and a hush descended upon the crowd as we waited for the show to begin.
 
In the first part, Acosta and his female counterpart depict a doomed relationship, blending contemporary ballet with touches of other genres. With perfect, flawless dynamism, the pair intertwined, with intimate movement depicting a couple at their most vulnerable, their most private and personal.

The unexpected entrance of people in black juxtaposed the intimacy.  One movement was particularly poignant; Acosta repeatedly placing his arm over his female lead only for it to be removed repeatedly, in a subtle battle for dominance in the relationship as spectators walk on by.
 
The simple costuming complimented the narrative. At the start, one dancer in white, the other in black, expressing dissonance in the relationship, with costume changes to white with white and black with black as the story progresses towards the death of the relationship.  C

There's growing distance on a stripped-bare stage. And empty distance follows periods of intimate and harmonious entanglements. It\s the turbulence of love.
 
Carlos Acosta is a world-renowned dancer. Every finger, toe and slightest movement is exact and controlled. Here is a man born to express emotion, and to tell stories through dance: mesmerising captivating in a stillness and silence.
 
Imagery of water, nudity and physical connection between the dancers in a crescendo of passion, before a calm descends.  Smoke is seen in soft lighting. A choir captures a moving and spiritual moment, and a palpable feeing of grief depends at what seems to be the funeral for the relationship. And then, in the final moments, an ascension.  

Moving, thought-provoking and technically excellent, ‘On Before’ and Carlos Acosta proves that, at 50 years old, dance has no age limit.