The 18th and 19th centuries in Britain were marked by the Empire’s voracious claim on bodies, objects and products from its colonies, and the desire to mount them in exhibitions and spectacles for a curious public across class. Performers entertained as Minstrelsy and Morris dancers, Kaffir Boys and Swing dance bands, Bayadère nautch girls of the Indian subcontinent and acrobats from the Far East, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin shows and plantation scenes. They were the oppressed minority. And they questioned the binds of servitude with sass and style. Despite dances and drumming being banned, black balls were highly anticipated events of the time. It was also a time when individuals strived to recast hierarchies, so they are not entrapped by them.
Few of the known individuals with ties to performance cultures were Rachel Baptiste Crow ‘The Black Siren’ of Ireland who sang at balls and ballads (fl. 1750 – 1773), abolitionist Charles Ignatius Sancho (1729 - 1780), who among other things, composed instrumental music for dance, celebrity street performer Billy Waters (1778-1823) acclaimed violinist Joseph Emidy (1775-1835), famous buskers Joseph Johnson and Alfred Rumjun, actor- playwright Ira F. Aldridge (1807 - 1867), banjo player Horace Weston (1825- 1890), author turned production designer Chiang Yee (1903 – 1977), choreographer Buddy Bradley (1905-1972), Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson (1914 – 1941) who led the West Indian Dance Orchestra, and Ram Bissano Gopal (1912 – 2003) who brought dances of India to the British audience. Many dancers during their extended travels across the island, left indelible impression on the British way of dancing. Aida Overton Walker (1880 – 1914) who sashayed into the British high society as a cakewalk virtuoso, Dai Ailian (1916- 2006) who performed ballet, modern and traditional Chinese dance in London, and anthropologist Katherine Dunham (1909- 2006) who pioneered dance revues on Black themes. Some stayed longer creating new generations of artists. Led by Jamaican dancers Berto Pasuka (1911- 1963) and Richie Riley (1910 – 1997), Les Ballet Nègres was the first Black ballet company in Europe, and their performers and staff flocked to London from Jamaica, Trinidad, England, British Guiana, Ghana and Nigeria.