Cassa Pancho’s Ballet Black returns with a thrilling triple bill

Featuring the revival of Mthuthuzeli November’s acclaimed Nina: By Whatever Means, celebrating the extraordinary life, music and spirit of Nina Simone. Isabela Coracy returns to her Olivier Award-winning role as Nina, a performance that also earned her a Black British Theatre Award, alongside the Ballet’s own award for the production.

Completing the programme are two contrasting Ballet Black favourites: Martin Lawrance’s intense and intricately charged Captured, set to Shostakovich, and Sophie Laplane’s playful, stylish and irresistibly energetic CLICK!

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The programme

CLICK!
Sophie Laplane created this piece to playfully explore the different gestural meanings of clicking the fingers. It is a non-narrative piece, illustrating that with a snap of the fingers everything can change; with this device we were able to cover a range of different styles, from the, “snap your fingers and I’ll come running,” cartoon-like duet, to the dancers’ bodies reacting to the accelerating snaps and clicks of the ending, to the tenderness of the couple who simply “click” together.

Captured
Martin Lawrance (Richard Alston Dance Company) returns with his intense quartet, Captured, set to Shostakovich’s string quartet (No. 11 in F minor), filled with intricate detail and tension.

Nina: By Whatever Means
Ballet Black’s award-winning piece by Mthuthuzeli November is a tribute to the music and passion of Nina Simone. The work explores the turbulent life, musical genius, and civil rights activism of the legendary American singer, songwriter, and pianist.