Les Ballets Nègres was Europe's first black dance company, founded in 1946 by Jamaican dancers
Berto Pasuka and
Ritchie Riley. The English composer (of Spanish origin)
Leonard Salzedo and his wife, the dancer Pat Clover, were closely involved with the group, and Salzedo wrote four scores for them for piano, tom tom and maracas: ''De Prophet'', ''They Came'', ''Market Day'' and ''Aggrey''. Their first performance was at the Twentieth Century Theatre in Westbourne Grove, London, on 30 April 1946. Performances of ''They Came'' and ''Market Day'' were broadcast by BBC Television on 8 June 1949. A further television broadcast was made on 3 January 1950. The company disbanded in 1953, after several European tours.
On 8 August 1999 a tribute to Les Ballets Nègres was staged at the
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...
in London's
Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge).
It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nat ...
.
[Monohan, Mark.]
New Dawn for a ballet that went to sleep
, ''Daily Telegraph'', 31 July 1999
References
External links
Newsreel of Les Ballets Nègres in rehearsal for their first performance(
British Pathé
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
, 1946)
{{Use British English, date=October 2020
Dance companies in the United Kingdom
Black British culture