Help Chisenhale Dance support independent artists

Help Chisenhale Dance Space support independent artists

Help Chisenhale Dance Space (CDS) to help independent artists coming out of lockdown. At the core of our 40-year history of championing experimental dance is the lively community of artists and local residents.

Your donations will directly pay independent artists who have been hit hardest by the impact of COVID to use our space for their artistic practice.

50% of all public donations will go directly to CDS Member artists as no-strings attached bursaries, with the other 50% covering the space hire for them use.

UPDATE: We're thankful to announce that the Mayor of London's Back to Business Fund WILL match every pound that you donate, up to a maximum of £5,000 - or 50% of campaign target - to help us invest in business-based COVID adaptations.

Your donations will help ensure that both CDS as an organisation, and our artistic community will survive and continue to produce radical dance and performance.

Who we are:

Chisenhale Dance Space is a registered charity championing experimentation in dance and performance for artists and our local community in Bow, Tower Hamlets, since 1980. CDS is run by a small team of 4 experienced staff, working with more than 50 freelancers.  We have approx 700 regular space hire bookers and welcome more 10,000 people to our studios every year. 

We have been at the heart of the independent dance sector since our founding. We are still led by a Membership of 160+ experimental dance artists - shaping our programme, ethos and ethics. We champion marginalised voices, reflecting diversity in artists and in form, and celebrating where dance meets new forms, in our home at the heart of East London. 

CDS and the artists that we support need you to survive:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chisenhale Dance Space had to shut our doors, and the performing arts remain one of the last sectors to re-open and the recovery will be long.

We are officially re-opening our studios in September, but are unable to run any of our programmes - from cutting-edge performances, much-loved classes for children and adults, or creative projects with schools and young people’s centres in the local Bow community. We are an independent registered charity, without any core funding, and rely on a healthy arts sector to thrive - as an organisation and a community.

We are thankful for emergency funding received and announced, but it's not enough, and not enough of it is getting directly to those that need it the most: artists themselves and the independent sector. CDS champions the work of artists who are often marginalised in society and the wider arts sector, existing without institutional support structures.

At the core of Chisenhale Dance Space are our affordable studio spaces for independent artists to meet, collaborate and create their works in a central location of Bow. This community of freelance artists are some of the people who got impacted the most by the pandemic, professionally and financially. And we want to survive this, together with them.

We need your help to keep the creative community of artists and locals going.

This is how your donations will support us:

We're looking to raise £10,000 to support CDS to support independent artists to work in our studios.

And now every donation, up to £5000, will be matched by the Mayor of London's Back to Business Fund, with those funds going towards business transformation, making our premises COVID-secure and adaptable to a socially-distant model.

Plus, as a registered charity, we can claim an additional 25% on what you donate through Gift Aid, if you're a UK tax payer. That all mean that CDS WILL receive £2.25 for every £1 you donate, so there's never been a better time to donate.

All donations through this crowdfunding campaign will be used directly to support independent artists. 50% of the raised money will be used as bursaries for artists, and 50% will pay for studio hire, be put to subsidise the studio hire fee for artists, enabling them to do their work during this financially difficult time and supporting CDS through this period.

• £25 will cover a cleaning cost after one use of our studios space.
• £50/£100 will cover a half/full day hire fee for our Research Studio.
• £80/£160 will cover a half/full day hire fee for our Performance Studio.
• £125 will cover professional cleaning for a week.
• £480 will cover a week hire fee for our Research Studio.
• £780 will cover a week hire fee for our Performance Studio.
• £75 will cover a half day bursary for one artist.
• £150 will cover a full day bursary for one artist.
• £750 will cover a week's bursary for one artist.

You will be rewarded with: 

• A framed thank you with your name as a donor at CDS.
• A thank you message with your name on the website & social media.

Credits:

Film: By Jo Cork Dance and Digital, with huge thanks.

Banner: Chisenhale Art Place building artwork

Body Image 1: Local audiences watch T-Break by Mickael Marso Riviere, Mad Dope Krew and Mendi Singh, performed at CDS' Encounter Bow festival. Photo by Zbigniew Kotkiewicz

Body Image 2: Adult classes. Photo by Zbigniew Tomasz Kotkiewicz

Body Image 3: Children's classes and workshops at All Points East 'In the Neighbourhood'. Photos by Zbigniew Tomasz Kotkiewicz

Body Image 4: Children take part in a parkour workshop by Esprit Concrete at CDS' Encounter Bow festival. Photo by Zbigniew Kotkiewicz