New funding award for Black British Ballet

We are excited to announce that the Paul Hamlyn Foundation has agreed to fund the Black British Ballet project with a grant of £52,000!

After two years of working on this project without income and relying on the generosity of our partners and the wonderful dancers from the project, this grant will help us to complete the documentary of the history of Black dancers in British ballet as well as fund the production of a website that will form a permanent record of these dancers’ achievements and experiences.

Marsha Lowe, Director, Oxygen Arts:

We are so grateful to the team at Paul Hamlyn for recognising the importance of this project that aims to address the deletion of Black dancers from the history of British ballet. When Dr Sandie Bourne completed her PhD in 2017, we knew that we wanted to take the stories of these ballet pioneers to a much wider audience. This funding will finally allow us to do this and honour these dancers in their lifetimes.

The Black British Ballet project is delivered in partnership with English National Ballet, The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.