About Us

Cassa Pancho’s Ballet Black is a professional ballet company that celebrates dancers of Black and Asian descent. We are making a fundamental change in the diversity of classical ballet in Britain – on stage, behind the scenes, and among audiences and dance students. In the nineteen years since Ballet Black was founded (2001), we have worked to change the landscape of classical ballet through performances, our Junior School and our outreach programmes. We are one of the most prolific commissioners of new and critically acclaimed ballets in the UK, and have developed diverse dance audiences across the country. Ballet Black is also playing a role in advocating wider societal change through cutting-edge collaborations, including working to create the first UK made pointe shoes for Black, Brown and Asian dancers.

Our ultimate goal is to see a fundamental change in the number of Black and culturally diverse dancers in mainstream ballet companies, making our initial vision wonderfully unnecessary.

Read more about our progression over the past decade on our History page.
You can also read a more in-depth profile on our company founder and Artistic Director, Cassa Pancho MBE here.