HAVE YOU seen Ballet Black? The documentary tells the story of Les Ballets Nègres, an all-black dance company founded by Berto Pasuka, a queer Jamaican dancer, choreographer, director, writer, performer and painter.
Blending archival photographs and video footage, the film recounts the company’s short history, concluding with a contemporary performance of Pasuka’s dance They Came.
Pasuka loved to dance. When he made Britain his home in 1939, he took a ballet course and found opportunities to dance in cabaret shows in West End night clubs during WWII.
He also modelled for sculptors, painters and photographers, including Angus McBean, who admired his physique. After the war, while working with several other black dancers in the film Men of Two Worlds, Pasuka established Ballet Negres, Britain’s first black ballet company.
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