★★★★☆
Formed in 2001, Casso Pancho’s Ballet Black company and school were designed to create opportunities for dancers of Black and Asian descent to work in ballet, later becoming a charity in 2004. Since then, they’ve earned numerous awards including an Olivier, toured the UK and parts of Italy, and created a digital platform to showcase their work. Now, Ballet Black celebrates it 25th anniversary touring the UK with two dance showcases – new and old colliding in an evening of energetic spectacle.
Act one is dedicated to …all towards hope, a new performance choreographed, written, and narrated by Hope Boykin. The piece is a celebration of the company’s past and a glimpse into their bright future.
Bill Laurance’s compositions are surprisingly varied, each bursting with a different type of emotion. At one moment, the music feels almost reminiscent of a Parisian cafe or a cheeky period drama, the plodding piano drawing you into the action. The next moment, you’re whisked away with slick jazz orchestrations or funky percussion matched with thrillingly bold, upbeat and stylish choreography.
David Plater’s lighting drenched the stage in a glorious mixture of warm and cold tones that neatly complimented Jessica Cabassa’s flurry of loose-fitting pink, red and brown fabrics. The haunting gentle glow of the performers walking purposefully towards the Plater’s dimming lights was yet another visually compelling moment.
The performance is framed by Boykin’s narrations, all circling back to the need for hope and unity, a theme mirrored by the togetherness and synchronisation of the company’s elegant poses, shapely acrobatic leaps, and powerful strides. Many of the routines oscillate between solos, duets, and group routines some in-sync or reacting in canon, others freely blending into one expressive collage, classical flair and contemporary abstraction blending seamlessly. It’s a fragmented routine separated by black-outs and decorated with different styles, rhythms and emotions, concluding with an excitingly synchronised finale.
Another routine was surprisingly performed in silence, the effect of which may have been more profound with more context and without the interruption of rustling sweet packets, squeaky seats, and violent coughing fits. Indeed, while I loved the abstract approach, I found a few of these routines a little hard to follow, understanding a sense of the emotion rather than the overall message. Occasionally there were also a few moments that lost their synchronisation- minor but still noticeable details.
The second act revives Mthuthuzeli November’s Ingoma, a piece inspired by Gerard Sekoto’s ‘Song of the Pick’ painting, the 1946 South African mining strike, and the 2012 Marikana mining strike and massacre. It explores grief, trauma, and resilience, particularly highlighting the effect such loss had on the women in these communities.
First performed in 2019, the piece went on to win an Olivier Award and The Black British Theatre Award for Best Dance Production in 2020.
Designer Yann Seabra keeps things simple with dark fabrics, wellies, helmets and pickaxes. The starkness pairs nicely with Plater’s sweeping light bar backdrop and strobing helmet flashlights that obscure our vision, isolate the miners in the darkness, or illuminate them in harsh industrial spotlights.
Ingoma also frames itself with narrations, this time a solemn recital of the Lord’s Prayer in Xhosa. Peter Johnson & Mthuthuzeli November’s score reflects the trauma and emotion of the events, transitioning between poignantly sustained cellos, violent percussive rhythms, eerie vocalisations, scream-filled soundscapes, and communal chants.
The fluidity in the duet between the miner and his wife was awe-inspiring, the supple lifts and elegant framework paired with emotive expressions. Following this, the miners perform with bellowing stomps, pounding their legs, striking with their axes, and chanting in a dance rooted in African tradition. Another routine brought the women together as one powerful force before a mournful solo, her gentle movements and flittering feet echoing her opening duet. Each moment is raw and affecting.
Ballet Black at 25 tours the UK until July 9.
Photo: ASH
JADAR 