Films
‘Historic moment in British ballet history’
In October 2018, after 18 months of development, Freed of London have teamed up with Ballet Black founder and artistic director Cassa Pancho MBE and Senior Artist Cira Robinson to create the first skin tone pointe shoes, handmade in the U.K. for black, Asian and mixed race dancers.
After over a year in development, Freed of London has introduced new colours ‘Ballet Bronze’ and ‘Ballet Brown’ to their core collection. The Freed of London ethos has always been to develop shoes to meet the needs of each generation of dancer and these new colours continue to reflect this.
“This wouldn’t of been achievable without the help of everyone involved, especially “Ballet Black” whom we collaborated with to create these beautiful new colours.” – Freed of London
“I am beyond delighted that Freed have launched these two new colours. Although it may seem like a very small change to the outside world, I believe this is an historic moment in British ballet history and another step forward for culturally diverse dancers across the globe who wear the iconic Freed brand of shoe.
I would like to thank Freed for using their platform to help instigate change, and Cira Robinson, Senior Artist at Ballet Black, for her unending dedication to making this possible.”- Cassa Pancho MBE, Founder & Artistic Director
Ballet Black is a professional ballet company for international dancers of black and Asian descent. The company was founded in 2001 by their Artistic Director, Cassa Pancho MBE, in order to foster talent and provide role models to young, aspiring black and Asian dancers. Beyond the Screen is a short film presented by Facebook
According to reports in Elizabeth Wilson’s book, Shostakovich: A life remembered, the young composer was "fragile and nervously agile,” and indeed, Yuri Lubimov considered that “the fact that he was more vulnerable and receptive than other people was no doubt an important feature of his genius”. The seven movements in Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 11 are all quite short, almost fragmented. Each one, for me, has its own emotion, structure and story, except for the last one, which is a combination of the previous movements. There are real moments of restriction and tension within the choreography and music, which tug the four dancers through the space. The detail and the intricacy capture them in a battle for their own territory. It was really exciting to revisit Captured again, five years after its creation in 2012. There are new dancers in the company, which has allowed me to look at the ballet with fresh eyes. I wanted to push the piece further and really define what was important: that sense of unease and the crackle of tension. I am particularly grateful to Cira Robinson, on whom the piece was originally made, for her beautiful yet sharp, dynamic and ferocious dancing. Also to the other dancers of Ballet Black for bringing new life to Captured, at the same time as building on what was created in 2012.
