Black Ballet: Diversifying ballet

Ballet Black aims to bring the dance form to a more culturally diverse audience incorporating international dancers of Black and Asian descent. 

Often perceived as a predominantly white art form, the company’s goal is to see an increase in the number of black and Asian dancers taking part in mainstream ballet companies. 

Cassa Pancho’s Black Ballet has won many prestigious accolades and is now an Associate Company of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

This will be the first time the company has performed as part of the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts and it is presenting a mixed bill of new work from emerging choreographers Ludovic Ondiviela (The Royal Ballet), Robert Binet (National Ballet of Canada) and world renowned dance maker Javier De Frutos. 

British choreographer Christopher Marney (Gothenburg Ballet, New Adventures) creates Ballet Black’s newest story, War Letters “an episodic journey through relationships built during World War II. 

The ballet offers an insight into the “loneliness of the women left behind, the aftermath of a soldier’s turmoil and the fun of the London dance halls and the sights and sounds of the Blitz spirit.”

The Dancing Times described War Letters as “fresh, confident and touching.”