THE mature Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta is appearing in his show On Before, here in Edinburgh, prior to an extensive UK tour. Thinking this would be a world-premiere, I anticipated the presence of the multiple choreographers involved and I noticed that Miguel Altunaga-Verdecia is a contributor. 

Miguel Altunaga-Verdecia trained happily in Cuba, in the modern-dance methods of Martha Graham and the authentic fusion of Afro-Caribbean dance forms. He later pivoted a transatlantic shift via an apprentice contract with the UK’s Rambert Dance Company, notwithstanding his professional renown at home. 

This was an interesting juncture at which to meet him. As a regular guest teacher at the Rambert troupe I became abruptly aware of a frisky new presence, and of the bonus of a formal handshake following our morning exertions. This was cultural immediacy, coming from a vibrant place where teachers are consistently respected as key avatars in the passing of knowledge. 

Right now, amid Miguel’s upcoming choreographic assignments with degree students on vocational courses and with professionals of great flair (Leeds Phoenix Dance Theatre, no less) it’s pleasing to imagine a continuity of honourable vitality.

Having once been his teacher, I delighted in the idea of a local reunion/interview, and Miguel reminds me how, on becoming safely contracted at Rambert, he had gradually assumed the prevalent in-house habit of skipping the end of morning training, in lieu of a longer rest before the important stuff of rehearsal. He recalled how, on one such occasion, I had happened upon him in some vestibule of retreat where, addressing me as Maestro (as he still does) he acted on an embedded reflex to apologise and explain. 

Being no disciplinarian, I apparently hazarded that rest was fine but maybe endurance could be more interesting. Miguel asserts this as a lightbulb moment, re-connecting him to roots of cherished motivation. As he returns to this anecdote, his face lights up with enduring endearment. 

However, I soon learned that the tour is a matter of streamlined revival — On Before was initially devised 15 years ago and the enterprise now travels light. 

There is potential gravitas in a return to cherished creative impulses and something of this notion is indicated in the eloquent theatrical poignancy of images that publicise On Before. Elsewhere Carlos Acosta is now ecstatically busy, directing Birmingham Royal Ballet, running a company in Cuba and spearheading London’s new Acosta Dance Centre. 

The choreographers of On Before may catch the superhero during an effective window of studio preparation, to remould their work around the seasoned dancer’s current physicality or perhaps simply to affirm that matters advance in good spirit.

I became clued-in during a zoom session with Mr Altunaga-Verdecia where, from the well-earned comfort of an upholstered banquette in the foyer of Rambert Dance Company’s London premises (he had just taught a class there) Miguel illuminates On Before and its journey. More specifically, we spoke of his own item, Memoria, and the way in which he had made the solo using his own body, prior to the act of transference. Also, that Memoria investigates the embodiment of spiritual archetypes.

Pragmatically, given Acosta’s workload (somewhat pressing, even back then) Altunaga-Verdecia looked within his own physical self for a creative resource that would inform initial configuration and be drawn upon for subsequent revivals. I theorise how Miguel could perform a sibling version of Memoria. 

Meanwhile I’m fascinated when he tells me how Carlos Acosta sheds his venerable status to channel the keen obsessive energy of a naive “self” when entering the zone of learning and iteration. I look forward to catching a whiff of this in performance. 

On Before is on tour from February 16 - July 21. For more information see: cuba50.org