30th Birthday Appeal

Who are we?

Greenwich Dance believe in the power of dance to bring people together and improve lives. 

For the last 30 years Greenwich Dance has supported tens of thousands of people to engage with dance across South East London, through a unique programme of open and accessible opportunities, classes, workshops and co-created public events. 

Our Retrospective: 30 Years in pictures, tracks our story right back to its very beginning…to 1993 when founder Richard Blanco saw the disused Borough Hall on Royal Hill in Greenwich and suggested to Greenwich Council that he turn it into a home for dance. 

Greenwich Dance went on to become a place where professionals and non professionals alike could take a daily class, create and present work both inside and outside of traditional dance spaces. The organisation has even initiated new careers – for example Justine Simons, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries started out at Greenwich Dance and Akram Khan, fresh out of conservatoire, made some of his first works with support from Greenwich Dance. Even Graham Norton, years before he became a national treasure, performed as part of a cabaret at Greenwich Dance!

The organisation has thrilled local communities and nurtured new audiences by playing host to barn dances, ceilidhs, tea dances, balls, cabarets, supper clubs, festivals and events. The education programme has taken dance to pupil referral units, care homes and nurseries. A youth programme has kept young people of all ages moving and schools have been supported with workshops, talks, performance projects and professional development programmes. We believe that everyone can dance, regardless of age, experience, training or background which is why we consistently challenge perceptions of who can dance. Our Adult Performance Company, for example, is a group of non professionals who come together weekly to create dances which they then share with others. In March they chose to visit Warm Banks to bring joy to those who were seeking comfort there. 

The film you can see above, an excerpt from GLORIA! was created in Summer 2019 to illustrate this. It is a celebration of what we are – a place where a dancing community can be nurtured regardless of whether you are paid to dance or doing it recreationally. The film, created by Roswitha Chesher and with Sarah Blanc as (fictional) New York choreographer GLORIA!, stars participants from our youth and adult class programmes alongside appearances from founder Richard Blanco,  photographer Chris Nash MBE, choreographers Yael Flexor, Luca Silvestrini, Tom Roden and Anna Williams, Levantes Dance and Akeim Toussaint Buck. It has won awards at screen festivals internationally. 

And then a pandemic hit. 

Dancing Communities and Covid-19

Within days of lockdown we pivoted our class programme online and turned a community centre tour into an online project in which artists and communities danced together on zoom and made films in fully locked down conditions. 

That year our digital creations reached 84,000 people.  In 21-22, a year still plagued by restrictions, we increased participation in our class programmes by 45% and moved some of our classes outside to parks and open spaces where participants could be distanced and and feel the air around them. This required us to rethink what dance should and could be. However, despite all of our efforts we saw anxiety, loneliness and isolation escalate across both our participants and workforce. 

Even now, in 2023 with the pandemic 'behind' us our communities are still bruised by the experience. Some are still scared to venture out and so we are continuing with dance for wellbeing and outdoor classes as much as possible as well as providing an online series of lindy hop downloadable tutorials.  

The Challenge – why are we fundraising

In 2022 we moved to a purpose built community building in Thamesmead with a beautiful space for dance called the Nest. Whilst still operating peripatetically across South East London we are also focussing attention on this exciting area which straddles the borders of Bexley and Greenwich and looks set to become an exciting new cultural quarter. 

 We believe this work has never been more important as communities learn to live with the Covid virus and the lasting trauma to both physical and mental health it has caused to people young and old. Our activities play a crucial role helping individuals deal with the emotional and mental health issues that have been accelerated and heightened by the pandemic and are designed to bring people together in safe and welcoming spaces to rebuild friendships and  social connections. 

Recently, inspired by the very real need to create more opportunities for young people to feel safe and engage in positive activity here in Thamesmead, we commenced delivery of skate jams which will be a feature of our exciting festival of dance and community within our Summer in the Park festival. 

However, late last year, having navigated a pandemic and immersed within a cost of living crisis, our existence was thrown into jeopardy again when our application to Arts Council’s National Portfolio was unsuccessful, followed by a 100% cut of our Voluntary and Community Sector funding from Royal Borough of Greenwich. 

Now we need your support.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Our target is to raise £10,000 which we will use to cover this years space hire costs within which we run our variety of class programmes.

We want everybody, regardless of their experience or economic situation, to have the chance to participate in dance, which is why our classes, workshops, programmes and events are either provided completely free or on a "pick your price" basis which includes an option to pay nothing. 

We don't want to start charging high fees in order to stay operational. We want to remain accessible to everyone and give people the choice to contribute what they can afford. Covering our space hire bill will ensure that classes can continue to operate in this way this year.

Community impact

The work we do benefits communities and artists across Greenwich and Bexley and without it people would be left unsupported. One participant who lost her husband during Covid told us that our classes have been life changing. 

“I knew that I had to start getting out, and this has helped me to do that. I come out of myself, using my imagination.  The movements I am exploring are creative and playful.  I don’t feel like I am doing exercise, but I am improving my fitness.”

If we were to disappear the commissions we make would disappear (over £45,000 spent in 2023 on producing and presenting artists work within our Summer in the Park programme). The artists we pay to run our classes would be out of work (we spend over £40,000 per year in class teachers fees), businesses we collaborate with would no longer have our support (19 in 2022 Summer in the Park and upwards of 60 in 2023) and we would no longer be hiring space (a spend of over £10,000 per year) which in turn helps other community centres and facilities here in Greenwich and Bexley to survive. 

We now need your help to nurture young local dance talent, to tackle loneliness and isolation in our older population and to enhance health and wellbeing throughout South East London communities.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!