January Diary 2003

by Cassa Pancho

Before we start in on January, we’ve got to go back in time to November 2002 really quickly. In all the excitement/horror or the Fundraiser, I completely forgot to tell you that…

I MET ARTHUR MITCHELL!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!
For all of you heathens out there, (you know who you are!) Arthur Mitchell is the man who in 1968 founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the USA’s first all black, classical ballet company. A talk was held at Sadlers Wells to discuss the lack of black dancers in ballet and amazingly, I was invited along. It was a dream come true for me. As a student, I spent shed-loads of my time studying him when he was a dancer with the New York City Ballet and the events that led to the beginnings of the DTH. Sitting in the RAD library and trying to read everything about him I could lay my hands on was just a ka-jillion miles away from this ground-breaking stuff going on in Harlem all those years ago. Like a lot of people from ballet history, Mitchell had a very unreal quality to me, despite becoming my absolute hero, so I’m sure you can appreciate that being in the same room, (let alone talking to him - help!) was “MEGA!” – to quote Denzil.

As well as him, Carol Straker (British born black ballet dancer who went to DTH after there were few opportunities for her here) and Brenda Garratt-Glassman (one of the first black female students to go through White Lodge) were there too – again, both people I studied and wrote about as a student. Too cool for skool. Also present were Monica Mason and David Nixon as part of the panel. Aaaanywaaay… I arrived a bit late (d’oh! It was the bus!) so the debate was pretty much in full swing when I got there. It was one of those open talks where, if you wanted to speak, you had to put your hand up and introduce yourself. I had planned on being present in a small way, but the talk turned towards how all vocational schools wanted more black kids to attend. Before I could stop myself my hand shot up and I was introducing myself…in an extremely squeaky voice!

“My name is Cassa Pancho and –

(in my head a voice was screaming, “what’s with the voice?! Clear your throat, stop being a sap and try to sound like you belong here!”)

- I run Ballet Black.” (“That’s better! Much more butch. Continue.”)

All eyes (most of them very friendly) turned to me and I ended up blurting out the completely inane words (to Arthur):

“I wrote a dissertation about the lack of black dancers in the UK and I studied everything about you! (to Brenda) and you! (to Carol) and you! So it’s so amazing for me to be here!”

Gush-gush-oh-God-let-the-floor-open-now-I-am-such-a-dork-oh-no-now-I’m-going-bright-red-HELP! By now that little voice in my head had deserted me and left me with no more good advice about being butch or tough. Luckily, I think everyone was so surprised by such sappiness that they maintained a quiet horror just long enough for me to march on with what I really wanted to say about the lack of role models for young children of black or Asian descent. Someone must have taken pity on me in the heavens because thankfully, Brenda nodded vigorously at what I was saying so everyone in the room started to agree and everything was okay again. Phew! Someone on the panel even said I was very brave to be here amongst all my hero’s. I agreed very heartily with her. At the end of the talk, I thought I couldn’t possibly make myself look any sillier so I pushed my shoulders back and went to talk to The Main Man. He shook my hand and I asked him if he had any advice for a fledgling company. He said; “just keep going. It’s hard, it’s tough, but if you can just keep going you’ll get there.” Then, Ballet Black was invited to see a dress rehearsal for DTH the next week! I couldn’t really ask for more than that. The rehearsal was fabulous, the actual performance even better, and I found myself realizing that the few white dancers in the company didn’t stand out to me at all. Kinda craps all over the arguments that one or two black dancers would look out of place…

“Don’t get deep, shut up and dance!” (Aerosmith)

On the 5th, 6th and 7th of February, Ballet Black took to the road for our first “away” gig in Guildford. We took part in a big show at Hurtwood House called Moving Images II and I have to say it was great! We couldn’t fit all the dancers into one car, so we were split between my Mum’s car (very small so we took the girls) and our dancer Celia’s car (a bit bigger so she got the boys). I don’t know what happened in the boys’ car, but I can tell you that the girly car was a real experience. Gossip, revelations and giggles all the way to Guildford then all the way back to London, peppered with brief bouts of snoozing and passing around mobile phones to try and use the light to read the road map in the dark. A complete scream, especially on the last night when our company physio Richard accompanied us. He sat in the front so I squished in the back with Sia and Florence and we bonded over packs of chewing gum and more giggles. One of the things I like about Ballet Black is the sense of togetherness that we have. Deep down, we all share the common goal of creating a good ballet company, but with it is a real feeling of friendship and teamwork and genuine affection for each other – at the end of the day, you could leave aside all the issues that a black ballet company might raise and know that we’re all there because we love dance.

So, back to Guildford and Moving Images II. We performed Denzil’s ballet, A New Beginning with music by Celloman. One of our dancers Jake was unable to perform as he had commitments to another company, so it was up to Denzil to step into his Lycra trousers and take over. After a few tweaks to the original choreography (Denz finally realized why Jake had found some of those sections so difficult!) we were ready for the performance. At rehearsals earlier in the day, it was up to me to ensure that spacing, timing and the general presentation was up to standard, now that Denzil was back in the tutu so to speak. I had to laugh at myself at one point though. When I was a student dancing in various things at the RAD, we had a brilliant tutor, Susie Cooper who was the head of all things choreographic. One of her most famous lines (that I always used to tease her about) was “Get right off the stage!” which would echo after any poor dancer that hadn’t disappeared from view completely at the end of a piece. Susie had always said I should take heed as I would probably end up saying the same thing in the future and she was absolutely right. I think it was one of my first corrections to the company and I doubt it’ll be the last time I say it.

Our number was quite unlike anything else in the show (I mean that in a good way!) and at the end the audience wouldn’t let the dancers leave the stage. Denzil had to make a discreet (ish) whooping noise over the sound of the audience so the dancers knew when to leave. It was a very uplifting time and I sincerely hope we can do a few more of those types of show before our next independent show. I thought that as this wasn’t my choreography and I wasn’t dancing I would be completely relaxed about the whole thing, but I was just as nervous as ever! Does the stomach-churning thing ever stop?

Music, Ballet & Future Plans

So! It looks like our next show will be to live music! There are still a lot of details to be ironed out, so nothing is definite yet, but so far the musicians we have approached are keen to work with us again and both Denz and I have started work on our new ballets. Unfortunately for us, this means we won’t be able to use one of the pieces previously mentioned, Christopher Hampson’s Finale, to music by Saint-Saëns. (September link). Though the company and I love the ballet, there is just no way that we can afford the kind of orchestra it would require, plus the length of the ballet is just over six minutes. What we’re trying to do now is have three fifteen-twenty minute pieces so the duration isn’t quite suitable for this particular show. I can’t thank Chris enough for allowing us to use it in the first place though. The dancers really enjoyed the sections they learnt, and once I got over my difficulties with the video, I really took pleasure in being the one to teach it to them.

I’m back to my old struggles with trying to pin down specific dates from the manager of a theatre. Once that’s done I’ll feel a whole lot better about the next show. We have also put together an informal committee for Ballet Black. I’ve found that whenever something good (or more likely bad) happens, it all falls to me to deal with the brunt of it. Is this the responsibility of a director? Yes and no in my view. An established ballet company has different departments for fundraising, publicity and dealing with the day-to-day crap that people fling. Though I have a lot of support from Denzil, the dancers and friends it’s mostly a one-woman show. A committee is exactly what we need to advise us and back me up. The great thing about it is that it’s not just ballet people involved but fundraising, legal and business-minded individuals, so Ballet B now has some muscle behind it. Always a good thing in the cutthroat world of entertainment.

Last thing…
We have an announcement to make: we have just taken on two new dancers, the very cool Malachi Spaulding and Silvestre Sanchez. They bring Ballet Black up to eight dancers now - nine if you include all the performances Denzil will be dancing in – ssssh – he doesn’t know it yet!