Our Artist Committee

Throughout our history, Chisenhale Dance Space has continually asked how artists can be at the centre of decision-making, in accordance with our founding mission to be artist-led.

In November 2022, these conversations led us to the conception of the CDS Artist Committee: a group of 5 artists from our artist community, who are paid 1 day per month to consult with CDS staff and trustees on our organisational goals, programmes and policies. Each committee member serves a 2-year term, before their space is opened up for applications from other artist community members. 

We see this group as a crucial first step towards more equitable, creative, inclusive, and artist-led governance. If you’re interested in how this process has worked, previous committee member Valerie Ebuwa’s reflections are well worth reading. 

Our 2026-27 committee is made up of: Tsipora St. Clair Knights, Renée Bellamy, Michael Mendones, Sara Svati, and Carolyn Roy.

More information about their respective creative practices can be found below.

We’re driven by an eagerness to consider new models of leadership that decentre power and redistribute it to artists who have previous been excluded from decision-making and resources.

Alice Tatge, CDS Artist Committee 23-24

Tsipora St. Clair Knights (she/her)

 

 

Tsipora is a multidisciplinary artist & producer from South East London whose creative practice is rooted in exploring the complexities of identity and lived experience through movement, spoken-word poetry and film. As a Board Member of Rising Arts Agency, Purple Moon Drama & a One Dance UK Ambassador, she also uses her art as a tool of activism to create meaningful change, through the lens of addressing a lack of diverse representation, accessibility & elitism within the arts.

 

Renée Bellamy (she/her)

 

 

 

Renée is an interdisciplinary artist, facilitator and producer whose practice is driven by a curiosity in movement (of images, of bodies) and community. My practice blends choreography, film and photography and is often DIY, iterative and collaborative in nature. Seeing my work as documentary-making, I seek to interact with the world on its own terms.

 

Michael Mendones (he/him)

An image of Michael in front of a yellow field and green trees. Michael is wearing glasses, and has curly black hair. He is wearing a white t-shirt that says ‘Tories - very little help'

 

 

 

Michael is a multidisciplinary artist who makes dance films that fuse music, movement, images and words to explore the outer edges of human emotion. He was interested in working with the Artist Committee because he is an unapologetic social justice warrior who wants to make a difference, particularly for those with similar characteristics to him who are members of the Chisenhale community.

Sara Svati (she/her)

 

 

Sara is a trans-disciplinary artist and independent researcher, founder of Orientale Sarda, a collaborative platform exploring esoterica, symbolism, and technologies for performance. Rooted in movement, deep listening, and the feminine and erotic, her practice spans directing, dramaturgy, and scenography. Her work has been presented across Europe and the UK.

She is committed to nurturing independent and grassroots spaces in performance, actively dismantling gatekeeping in the arts through class-conscious, collective, and artist- led collaborative practices.

Carolyn Roy (she/her)

 

 

Carolyn is a London-based, freelance dancer, writer and teacher. As a practitioner channelling the somatic processes and understanding we use as dancers through dance and other art forms, her body of presented/published work includes poetic and critical texts, sound narratives, film and photographic projects as well as live performances and political actions.