Artists and other arts workers in dance, performance, live art, or any other related discipline. Our community is made up of performers, choreographers, teachers, curators, producers, facilitators and peers. No formal training or degree is required. If you are currently studying a BA, we encourage you to finish it before you join.

No application will be judged on artistic merit, profile or quality. You will be asked a simple series of questions to check eligibility and your interest in joining. Everyone who we feel is in line with the politics and ethics of our organisation will be invited to join.

Membership of the community is secured by paying a small donation fee to CDS; you can pay this monthly or annually. There is tiered pricing to accommodate people in different financial situations; from January 2027, you will be given the option to pay from £4 to £7 a month.

To engage with the community and make best use of the benefits, our membership is very suited to people who are currently living in London. However, if you’re willing to occasionally travel down, or feel you that could still get something out of the online elements of the community even though you live elsewhere, we are happy for you to join.

Our imperfect home for the past 40 years has been on the second floor of a warehouse building, accessed by a staircase only. We regret that we cannot currently adequately support wheelchair users and those for whom stairs are a barrier. We are currently in negotiations with Tower Hamlets council about a redevelopment on our site which would allow us to move to the ground floor, however the timeline for this work is not yet clear. 

You can read more about the access specifications of our building here. Read more about our commitments to anti-ableism here.

Whilst we will continue to have activity on-site, we are increasingly bringing in online programs which are more accessible for disabled artists: these include regular community zoom calls, online mentoring with staff, and access to other online resources (for example our anti-oppression training webinars).

We also host an annual ‘Cultivating Connection’ event at a wheelchair accessible venues, which is for neurodivergent and disabled artists only, to enable them to build relationships with each other in a safe and comfortable space. 

We are committed to removing other barriers to access, and we encourage any disabled artist considering joining us to get in touch to talk about your needs: email Sonya, our Artist Community Producer, on sonya@chisenhaledancespace.co.uk

You can see our practical commitments to antiracist and anti-ableist practice, as well as more about our Artist Community’s values on our policies page.

This includes: a requirement for Activators to complete anti-racism training, creating specific spaces for black/brown and disabled/neurodivergent artists, and investing in leadership from marginalised people through our paid Artist Committee. 

Once a year, we host a Cultivating Connection event which is only for Black, Brown and Global Majority Heritage artists, to enable them to build relationships with each other in a safe and comfortable space.

We are not a regularly funded organisation and rely heavily on our earned income from studio hire. Therefore we cannot regularly offer free rehearsal space / residencies to artists, except when we have specific project funding to support this.

We offer last-minute unsold space for free, plus community artists get our lowest rate. We’re committed to being one of the most affordable studio spaces in London.