Cassa Pancho's Ballet Black is a British ballet company. It was founded by Cassa Pancho in 2001 as a response to the lack of professional Black and Asian ballet dancers in the UK. The Company was to provide dancers and students of black and Asian descent with inspiring opportunities in classical ballet. Based in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...

, London, Ballet Black are a touring company with 8 dancers and an extensive repertoire of specially commissioned choreography from both established and emerging choreographers. Ballet Black achieved charity status in 2004. Its patrons are

Thandiwe Newton Melanie Thandiwe Newton ( ; born 6 November 1972), formerly credited as Thandie Newton, is a British actress. Newton has received various awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for ...

OBE and

Kwame Kwei-Armah Kwame Kwei-Armah (born Ian Roberts; 24 March 1967 in Hillingdon, London) is a British actor, playwright, director, singer and broadcaster. He is best known for playing paramedic Finlay Newton in the BBC medical drama ''Casualty'' from 1999 unti ...

OBE, and

Althea Efunshile Althea Joy Barrett Efunshile (born 20 August 1956) is a senior British public sector executive. Education Efunshile has a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Essex, a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, PGCE from Goldsmi ...

is the chair of the trustees.

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

made Ballet Black a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) for 2018-2022 and awarded them £880,000. In addition to the professional performing company, Ballet Black also has a junior ballet school for ages 3 to 18. The classes are held in

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...

, West London and the teachers include director Cassa Pancho and Senior Artist Cira Robinson. The junior school is a key part of the work of Ballet Black, and is essential to creating, building and sustaining the future of diversity in ballet. The company has made a list of actions resources available on their website so that other companies and dance schools can made active steps to become inclusive and anti-racist. Ballet Black have been nominated for several awards including

The Critics' Circle The Critics' Circle is the national Professional association, professional body of United Kingdom, British critics for dance, drama, film, music, books and visual arts. It was established in 1913 as a successor to the Society of Dramatic Critics ...

National Dance Awards The National Dance Awards are presented annually in the United Kingdom by The Critics' Circle, and are awarded to recognise excellence in professional dance. They are widely regarded as the most prestigious award presented for dance in the UK, a ...

Sky Arts Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music (such as opera perfor ...

, and Oliviers. In the 2012 National Dance Awards (announced Jan 2013) they won the Grishko Award for the Best Independent Company, and in the 2018 awards their dancer José Alves won Outstanding Male Dancer in Classical Performance, while Cathy Marston won Best Classical Choreography, both for work on ''The Suit''. Other nominations included the company's Arthur Pita's nomination for the

Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance The Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End ...

in 2014 for his choreography of ''A Dream Within A Midsummer Night's Dream'', and the same piece receiving a nomination for the 2015 Sky Arts award for dance. Ballet Black have featured in documentaries including ''

The South Bank Show ''The South Bank Show'' is a British television arts magazine series originally produced by London Weekend Television and broadcast on ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new version of the series began 27 May 2012 on Sky Arts. Conceived, written, ...

'' in 2016 and

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

's ''Danceworks''. A collaboration with dance shoe company

Freed of London Freed of London Ltd, often referred to simply as ''Freed'', is a designer and manufacturer of pointe shoes and other dance shoes. The company additionally manufactures dance apparel, bridal, and fashion collections. Freed of London shoes are ha ...

was announced in 2018. Freed added two new colours, "Ballet Bronze" and "Ballet Brown" to their range of

pointe shoe A pointe shoe (, ), also called a ballet toe shoe or simply toe shoe, is a type of shoe worn by ballet dancers when performing pointe work. Pointe shoes were conceived in response to the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like an ...

s. This meant that dancers with skin colours other than white would no longer have to pancake their shoes with foundation to make them match their skin tones. Over a year a professional dancer gets through many pairs of shoes, sometimes a pair per performance as well as those used for daily classes and rehearsals, so the saved labour and expense for many Black and Asian dancers is incalculable. Senior Artists Cira Robinson and Mthuthuzeli November danced as part of

Stormzy Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. (born 26 July 1993), known professionally as Stormzy, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter. In 2014, he gained attention on the UK underground music scene through his ''Wicked Skengman'' series of f ...

's headlining act on the Pyramid stage at

Glastonbury Festival 2019 The 2019 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts took place between 26 and 30 June. The three headlining acts were Stormzy, the Killers and The Cure, with Kylie Minogue performing in the "legends" slot. This was the last regular edi ...

References

External links

* * *Interviews on Radio 4's Woman's Hour : : :{{cite web , title=Woman's Hour: Office Cleaners, Cassa Pancho, Jackie Kay , url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jf6y , website=www.bbc.co.uk , accessdate=23 August 2020 , date=27 May 2020 Ballet companies in the United Kingdom Ballet in London 2001 establishments in England Race and society

See also

References

External links