Saturday night’s Bermuda Festival performance of Ballet Black was by turns dazzling and delightful, exciting but a little esoteric, but only because the miniscule print on the programme provided was virtually unreadable in the dim theatre light, leaving one to guess at the meanings behind the movements on stage. This was a shame really, because once in adequate light, the printed programme was a fund of valuable information about the pieces, the dancers and the choreographers. Mini-rant over!

The dance programme opened with a stunning pas de deux entitled “Dopamine (You Make My Levels Go Silly).” Stiff, jerky arm movements alternated with graceful turns, effortless lifts and arabesques on the ground and in the air. At times, it seemed the female lead almost took flight! Breathtaking! Cheers and thunderous applause from the packed house were a fitting tribute.

“The One Played Twice” was a cycle of five dances whimsically set to recordings of Hawaiian Barbershop Quartets, allowing one to enjoy strong vocals and tight harmony along with the visual brilliance of the dancers. The words of the first, “Hawaiian Lullaby” spoke of ‘rainbows where I live’, and although the song was not illustrated as such, the pas de trois was evocative of beauty, order and peace. The second, “Keep Your Eyes On the Hands” inserted a bit of light humor, the words admonishing men “too young to date or over 98” not to fixate on anything but the hands of hula dancers.

The dancers’ graceful hands became the focal point of this dance as well, which is not to detract from the excellence of the rest of her performance. Of the next three dances in this cycle, two were set to songs in the Hawaiian tongue and were performed by female soloists who stood as if planted like trees, with just their arms evoking the sentiments of welcome and farewell. The middle dance was set to “The Hawaiian Wedding Song” combining both joy and solemnity. Throughout, both male and female dancers displayed skill, strength, flexibility and a technique that looked flawless to one who stopped ballet lessons “hmmm-many” years ago.

“Egal,” translated as “Equal,” was the last piece of the first act, which the programme described as “the possibilities and complications that might arise if two people who are completely equal in every sense and ability were to encounter each other.” Prior to reading this explanation, I was mesmerised by the ability of the duo to mirror precisely each other’s movements, in between quite breath-taking lifts and leaps. This piece was set to a series of knocking sounds and screeching violins with the programme informs was a “collaboration between American classical violinist Hilary Hahn and German prepared piano composer Volker Bertelmann”. Providentially, the “music” did not detract in any way from the dance.

The second act, “War Letters,” was a series of five scenes inspired by a collection of personal letters now housed in the Imperial War Museum that had been found on a battlefield during the Second World War, portraying aspects of life in that era. In each, we were treated to superb ballet combined with drama as, following the opening poem, the dancers depicted first a soldier haunted by memories of happier times with his fiancée; then, an irretrievably traumatised soldier in hospital being visited by his loved one; and thirdly, a dance hall in London proving that life goes on even in war-time.

The fourth vignette followed another poem, “The Heavy Coat,” in which a woman experiences the poignancy of losing an unappreciated yet valuable love. The final scene brought all the dancing cast together to celebrate the return of the soldiers. The audience was left unsure whether this was reality or the imaginings and longing of the women left behind.

There is no uncertainty however, about the quality and caliber of the Ballet Black troupe, which celebrates international dancers of black and Asian descent. The aim of Ballet Black, based in London, England, is to “bring ballet to a more culturally diverse audience” and eventually to effect a “fundamental change in the number of black and Asian dancers in mainstream ballet companies. They “perform and offer community driven classes for dancers and students, young and old.”

Their founder, Cassa Pancho, of Trinidadian and British parentage, was made a member of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013 for Services to Ballet. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dance and received a degree in classical ballet from Durham University.

The company, founded in 2001 after her graduation, has won both the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Company in 2009 and Best Independent Company in 2012, awards that this writer would deem very well deserved.