Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Cuban national hero and principal dancer at Covent Garden, known for his rags-to-riches story and Olivier-nominated show Tokororo.
On the island
Eight records
This music is happiness. And I used to listen to that and I still do. When I feel uh homesick, I just put it on and I do the cleaning of my house and jumping around and I hope everybody enjoys it.
Don Quixote: Basilio's Variation
Sofia National Opera Orchestra conducted by Boris Spassov
this is the main male variation of Donkey Shot is the ballet that I performed the most in my life and it was with Wi I Won the Prid Rosanne, so it's very dear to me.
This is my favorite movie, which is Nio Cinema Paradiso by Joseph Tornatore. And I love the Enio Morricone music in that.
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467
Malcolm Bilson with the English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
The first record is from my favorite composer, Mozart. Here is Piano Concerto No. Twenty One. It's one of my favorite pieces ever. It's beautiful, huh? It really is.
Bacalao con PanFavourite
So this is happiness now and uh again back to dancing, back to feel the cue and moves and I'm gonna watch every one of you through the microphone to make sure you are dancing.
Jimi Hendrix, the voodoo child. Okay, I'm working on my Afro, so let's enjoy this.
this is from the soundtrack Togororo, the only correla file created so far. And this is a track by Miguel Nunez, and so I hope you enjoy Sonad Oriental.
I have to have this definitely in my island. I need to have this track. It's my favorite track, and I will be dancing in the island with it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:59How would you have reacted as a young boy in Havana if someone told you you would dance the Prince in Swan Lake at Covent Garden?
I mean, I would laugh about that, of course. Uh me a bit a ballet dancer. That's uh was just uh unthinkable. First, because I wanted to be a footballer and I thought that ballet it was something I didn't want to do because uh it was more like for women, you know. If you are living in my neighborhood, you're not a ballet dancer, let's put it this way.
Presenter asks
6:06What do you remember about winning the Prix de Lausanne at age sixteen?
It was just amazing. I was really floating because you see, you you need to understand that I was convinced that I was bound to be born, grow up and eventually die in my neighborhood. I had no hopes. And then all the suddenly this happened and I realized I could produce a positive impact on people.
Presenter asks
10:49What was your father like, and how did he treat you?
He was very strict. ... Some of the things are even harder for me to remember'cause I was just petrified by by him. ... He used to he used to hit me, beat me up, all that. But, you know, that was his way of educating, because I'm sure that my grandmother, his mother, did that to him and so on and so forth.
The keepsakes
The book
Pedro Juan Gutiérrez
That would be Dirty Theology from Havana. That's from Pedro Juan Gutierre, a Cuban writer. He writes about all the city and the streets that I still uh go and if I would be desert, you know, castaway in an island I would like to have that. And remember the schools, the streets where I used to uh buy the bread, my mathematic t-shirt, everyone.
The luxury
Well, I figure, you know, it's just to forget and be happy and I just remember who I was once and I just have a nice bottle of rum and perform probably for the monkeys, the animals on the island, and just b entertain them, you know.
Presenter asks
22:11Why do you think classical ballet is so conservative when it comes to casting black dancers?
Listen, I I don't know what the problem is. All I can tell you is that send out the wrong kind of message. People, human beings, tends to be very conservative, tend to type caste people. You know, society is ruled by codes. ... Classical ballet is still the prince on people's mind. He's the guy with blue eyes and blonde. That's that's the prince. Now we have n princes in Africa, we have royalty in Africa, and when you see Siegfried, Siegfried is not a prince that lived, you know, it's just a prince, you know, that falls in love with the Swan. Now, you can take that and make the best of you. I can be a prince, I can be anything I want if I've been given the opportunity, you know.
Presenter asks
30:43Do you ever wish you had never taken that crossroads and were still back in Cuba?
No, no, no. I think my choice was the best choice. I had this longing, it's normal. I think I can get over it. I had to get over it. Eventually, I would have my family. But my choice, it was the right choice. And so I had to live with the side effects. And that's what I do. And one of them is that longing of have my family but hey, happiness is not complete, you know. In order to gain something you lose other things.
“fame, success is a ephemeral illusion, you know, that will pass eventually.”
“The only thing I have was ballet, that's the only thing I have, so.”
“I am a rare animal indeed. That's right. But it's good. I think I'm sending out the right kind of message, you know. Just for the fact that I'm the Royal Opera House here performing Romeo and Juliet, a Q one guy from Los Pinos. It's a new face. It's something that he hasn't seen before.”