Londoner’s Diary: Carlos Acosta on the pandemic’s heavy toll on ballet
BALLET star Carlos Acosta says his art is suffering due to a lack of dancers coming through during Covid. “There is not a lot of talent out there now because of the pandemic,” he said. The Cuban, inset, who was a principal at London’s Royal Ballet for over a decade and now runs Birmingham Royal Ballet, said the standard had dropped.
“We are suffering because the talent is not ready to be thrown into... complex ballets” he claimed. Acosta told The Stage that remote practice had been harder for young dancers “restricted to training on your own, in your own confined space” at home.
It seems the lack of alternatives has pushed Acosta himself back on stage. The 49-year-old is set to star in On Before, a show he toured in 2020.
Laugh along with Luciana
EX-MP Luciana Berger has gone into stand-up comedy, performing her first show in Stockwell earlier this month, and describing herself as a “recovering politician”. Berger’s colleagues in short-lived breakaway party Change UK have also left Westminster: Chuka Umunna is in banking at JP Morgan, and Anna Soubry has returned to law.
Moss’s new signing
IN A poignant address to listeners on Desert Island Discs yesterday, model Kate Moss dedicated a song to her photographer friend David Sims, whose son tragically died. Now Kate has added David’s daughter Stevie Sims, right, to her eponymous model agency. Stevie joins other family friends Stella Jones and Ella Richards, and Kate’s own daughter Lila Grace.
Rishi gets backing of PM
RISHI Sunak has fans in Kenya, where The Daily Nation is backing him to be the next Prime Minister. Sunak’s father Yashvir, of Indian descent, was born and went to school there. The paper likens Rishi to Barack Obama, who also has Kenyan roots, saying: “Making of another Obama in UK?... Whatever the outcome in September, Kenya is already on the global map over the triumph made so far”.
Podcast Awards
Londoner’s Diary 25 07 22
THE LATE Deborah James was honoured at the Podcast Awards in Kennington on Friday, where her co-host Lauren Mahon paid tribute. Also there were Idris and Sabrina Elba and Poppy Jay. Elsewhere, Joe Wicks received an honorary degree from St Mary’s, Martin Lewis and Lara Lewington attended the 101 Dalmatians show, and actors Talulah Riley and Thomas Brodie-Sangster were at the races in Ascot.
