The Floor Mag spoke to Ballet Black’s founder Cassa Pancho to discuss how Ballet Black came to be, their upcoming performance at Stratford East, and what she wants audiences to take from a Ballet Black show.
When Cassa Pancho struggled to find four Black ballerinas in the UK she realised there was a problem. What started as a dissertation topic, grew into a company that has left a renowned impact on the ballet world. Since 2001, Ballet Black has been paving the way for Black and Asian ballerinas.
The school has won several dance awards such as The Critics' Circle National Dance Awards, Sky Arts, and Oliviers. Their dances have performed across the country and worldwide. Ballet Black even worked with the dance shoe company Freed of London to create ballet shoes for people of colour.
The world of ballet looks quite different from when Pancho had her first ballet lesson at the tender age of two. Pancho’s parents enrolled her in a local ballet school but she admits she hated it at first. “Somewhere along the way, I guess I must have started to love it because I eventually wanted to be there all the time,” she reflected.
However, as a mixed-race, white-passing woman, she started to hear and see things that made her feel uncomfortable. “It’s not obvious that I’m Caribbean and people would say things in front of me that they wouldn’t say in front of an unambiguous Black person.”
She explains that she’s cautious of repeating those comments as these remarks were made twenty years ago. However, they were broad sweeping statements about people of colour not being suited for ballet.
“I’d hear people say that Black people aren't interested in ballet. Black people don’t have the correct body type or that our hair isn’t suited for ballet as it can’t be slicked back into a bun,” she says.
Pancho describes her schooling in ballet as a series of surprises but nothing shocked her more than when she was writing her dissertation at university. She studied classical ballet at Durham University and her thesis focused on the experiences of Black ballerinas.
“I assumed I could interview four or five women to speak to. I wanted to ask them what their experiences had been. But when I set out to do that I couldn’t find any Black women currently working in ballet,” Pancho recalls.
She found Black ballerinas working in America, and men in the UK but she had to reframe the question to where are the black British female ballerinas? That question became the foundation of Ballet Black.
Ballet looks different to what it did twenty years ago however Pancho explains that significant change came after the murder of George Floyd. “There was a lot of lip service when George Floyd was murdered,” she says. Poncho continues: “But forcing organisations to be held accountable during that time led to some change.”
One of those examples is through ballerinas' shoes and costumes. “Now it’s pretty normal that ballerinas of colour have underwear, shoes, and tights that can come in shades suited to their skin tone.”
It’s currently Black History Month. A month when Black people in the creative industry experience a surge of jobs, work, andpanel requests. But, this year has been eerily quiet. Poncho and I discuss the silence of corporations since the resurgence of Black Lives Matter in 2020.
“I saw some people try to change but many didn’t. Some people recognized that they didn’t understand much but I could work with that. However other people believed they didn’t have issues.”
Pancho says: “They’d say things like we have a Black student here and they love it. Well, you wouldn’t expect a White ballet dancer to speak for all White dancers, so why is that the expectation for Black people?”
Though the world of ballet is far from perfect. Pancho didn’t imagine Ballet Black being as impactful as it’s been. “We’ve done Glastonbury with Stormzy, Eurovision, we’re going to be on Blue Peter today, we have the new ballet shoes, and there have been so many positives”
Now, Ballet Black will be coming back to Stratford East with their new double bill: Heroes. “We love the audience at Stratford East because they love us.”
She continues: “There's also something about the venue and the people and the audience there that keeps us in love with going there. We also always love going anywhere where we can hop by the market and buy breadfruit or scotch bonnet on the way to a show.”
When asked what she wants people to take from a Ballet Black show Pancho says “I think you can take a lot of different things depending on who you are.”
“I think you could be inspired by it and by these incredible dancers doing what they do. That’s the beauty of one of our shows. I want young people to see what they could be if they have a passion for dance.”