Richard Glasstone was born in the Belgian Congo in 1935, the son of a family who were among the colony's earliest pioneers. Reuben Glasstone was to travel on the first train to reach the Belgian Congo in September 1910, and was soon to be followed by Harry, Richard's father. They established a successful business, and the family became a cornerstone of the still small but very active Jewish Community.

The country's first synagogue was built in Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi) in the early 1930's. Moise Levy served the town's rapidly developing, Ladino-speaking Sephardic community for over half a century, surviving the difficulties of the transition from colonialism to Independence in the 1960's with immense courage and continuing to preside over the now forgotten but once rich chapter of Jewish life in the Congo.

Richard Glasstone graduated from the Dance Department of Cape Town University; in 1965 he was appointed Resident Choreographer to the Turkish State Ballet Company, and from 1970 he worked for London's Royal Ballet School as a Senior Teacher for Boys and Director of the Dance Composition Course. Talking about Jews of the Congo he will prove that he is not only a dancer, choreographer and ballet teacher, but also a fascinating and charismatic lecturer.