Ballet Black is a registered charity in England & Wales. Charity number 1101599   |   Board of Trustees   |   Privacy Statement   |   Contact Us  


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Ballet Black was started by Cassa Pancho as a way to provide dancers and students of black and Asian descent with inspiring opportunities in classical ballet. Together with founding Ballet Master Denzil Bailey, Ballet Black’s first audition was held at the Royal Academy of Dance, London. After several months of searching, six dancers became the first members of Ballet Black: Frederic Claudel, Celia Grannum, Florence Kollie, Sia Kpakiwa, Gerrard Martin and Jake Nwogu. Ballet Black held its first performance at the Royal Academy of Dance, featuring works by Pancho and Bailey, as well as musical performances by Celloman and students from Trinity College of Music.



Ballet Black debuted at the Cochrane Theatre, London, dancing in ballets by Stephen Sheriff and Patrick Lewis. Dancer Silvestre Sanchez replaced Gerrard Martin. At the same time, Pancho opened the Ballet Black School for young children in Shepherd’s Bush, and the Ballet Black Associate Programme for teenage and professional dancers.



Raymond Chai took over as Chief Ballet Master, and the Company returned to the Cochrane theatre once more, with new dancers Neil Totton and Jeremiah Tatum. A meeting with Deborah Bull, Creative Director for ROH2 at the Royal Opera House, led to Ballet Black moving its weekend classes and rehearsals to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.



Ballet Black held a fundraising performance at the Clore Studio at the Royal Opera House, with new addition to the Company, Camille Fitzworme, and also performed at the Global Fusion Festival, Hastings. The Company achieved Registered Charity Status.



Carlos Acosta, Principal Guest Artist with The Royal Ballet Company became the Patron of Ballet Black. The Company, (Damien Johnson, Carl Paris Adams, Denzil Bailey, Celia Grannum and So-Yeon Kim) had its first season at the Linbury Studio Theatre, with choreography by Antonia Franceschi, Stephen Sheriff and Irek Mukhamedov. After a cancelled tour to Poland left the Company in dire financial straits, Ballet Black returned to the Linbury, and sold out a one-off fundraising performance with just one week’s notice. The Associate Programme reached over 100 members.



Ballet Black (now with dancers Hugo Cortes, Richard Glover, Chantelle Gotobed, Damien Johnson, So-Yeon Kim and Monica Stephenson) returned to the Linbury Studio for a brand new, sell-out season, this time featuring choreography by Ballet Master Raymond Chai, Antonia Franceschi, Bawren Tavaziva and Liam Scarlett. Ballet Black was also featured in a poll of ‘The Best of Black Britain’ in PRIDE Magazine.



Ballet Black returned to the Linbury Theatre in April with a brand new company of dancers: Darrius Gray, Cira Robinson, Jaime Rodney, Nandita Shankardass, Stephanie Williams and Jazmon Voss. The season was made up of world premieres by Shobana Jeyasingh, Liam Scarlett and Richard Alston. The company was also featured in the March edition of British Vogue and had its debut at the Cambridge Arts Theatre and The Big Mission, Swindon. At the start of the new season in November, BB welcomed new British dancers Sarah Kundi and Jade Hale-Christofi into the company, along with returning dancers Chantelle Gotobed and Hugo Cortes (from 2007) and Cira and Jazz from the April season. 2008 also saw the addition of four new classes to the Ballet Black Junior School and the Associate Programme.



For their 2008/9 season, Ballet Black were able to offer year-round contracts for the first time. The Company was made up of BB veterans: American dancers Cira Robinson and Jazmon Voss, Hugo Cortes from Brazil, and British dancers Chantelle Gotobed, Sarah Kundi and Jade Hale-Christofi. BB commissioned brand new ballets from Martin Lawrance, Antonia Franceschi, Christopher Marney and Will Tuckett, and revived their 2007 ballet by Liam Scarlett, Hinterland. In addition to their sell-out season at the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House and the Cambridge Arts Theatre, the Company also made their debut at the Hackney Empire in London, the Latitude Festival in Suffolk and danced at the G20 summit for guests including Sarah Brown, Michelle Obama and J. K Rowling. The Company received its first nomination at the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards, for Best Classical Dancer for Sarah Kundi, and won the Dance Europe Award for Outstanding Dance Company of 2009.



For the 2009/10 season, American dancer Damien Johnson rejoined the Company and Ballet Black returned to the Royal Opera House with another programme of world premieres, choreographed by Chief Ballet Master, Raymond Chai, hip-hop dance maker Robert Hylton, and award-winning choreographers Christopher Hampson and Henri Oguike. The Ballet Black Junior School added several new classes to its schedule and the Associate programme grew to 250 members. The Company debuted at East London Dance's Local, International season, Greenwich Dance Agency's Cabaret, appeared twice at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre and staged a special performance at the Royal Opera House, hosted by Kwame Kwei-Armah with talks from Richard Alston and Christopher Marney.


The start of their 2010/11 season saw the Company hire its first Apprentice dancers, Kanika Carr (Central School of Ballet) and Samuel Chung (Tring Park), taking the Company to eight dancers. The season also marked BB's ten year anniversary which was commemorated with their first ever narrative ballet, Orpheus, choreographed by Will Tuckett that premiered at the Royal Opera House in February. The Company also toured to new locations, including Canterbury, Winchester, Bury-St-Edmunds, Watford, Southend and Nottingham.



For BB's 2011/12 season, we welcome two new dancers: First Year Apprentice, Joseph Poulton, graduate of the Central School of Ballet, and Senior Artist, Sayaka Ichikawa. In addition to new tour locations in Lancaster and Newbury, the Company also returned to Canterbury, Winchester and new London venue, the artsdepot in Finchley. This year we have extended our Royal Opera House season to include seven performance and in April will embark upon our first foreign performance in Modena, Italy, as well as a regional tour of the Theatre Royal, Bury-St-Edmunds, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Brewhouse Arts Centre, The Curve, Leicester, Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham and the Cambridge Arts Theatre. The current repertoire includes new works from Jonathan Watkins (The Royal Ballet), Martin Lawrance (creator of Pendulum for BB in 2009) and Jonathan Goddard (Rambert Dance Company). Christopher Hampson also returns with a new narrative work, Storyville, a dark tale of love, corruption and survival, set in the nightclubs of 1900s New Orleans.