Ballet Black celebrates its 25th anniversary with a landmark double bill at Gala Durham, opening October with an evening of powerful contemporary ballet, storytelling and Black cultural history.
Founded by Cassa Pancho, Ballet Black has spent a quarter of a century creating opportunities for dancers and choreographers of Black and Asian descent while expanding the stories and perspectives represented on British ballet stages. The anniversary programme reflects that journey while looking towards the company’s future.
The evening includes Mthuthuzeli November’s Ingoma, a work inspired by the 1946 African Mine Workers’ Strike in South Africa. Through dance, it explores the hardship, resistance and resilience of Black miners and their communities during a period that helped shape the longer struggle against apartheid.
Originally created in 2019, Ingoma went on to receive both an Olivier Award and a Black British Theatre Award for Best Dance Production, demonstrating the power of ballet to tell histories that have often been overlooked within traditional European repertoire.
The programme also features …all towards hope, a new work from acclaimed American choreographer and former Alvin Ailey dancer Hope Boykin, making her UK choreographic debut with Ballet Black. The piece has been created as a celebration of the company’s anniversary and its continuing commitment to new voices in dance.
Taking place on the first day of Black History Month, Ballet Black at 25 offers Durham audiences an opportunity to experience a company that has played a significant role in changing the face of British ballet.
It is both a celebration of artistic achievement and an evening that brings Black history, lived experience and contemporary creativity into one of Britain’s most established classical art forms.
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