International and experimental,
off the beaten track.
Artist-led and run, at Wainsgate Chapel on a hilltop in the South Pennines of Yorkshire, UK.
A grass-roots programme where a local community and people from far and wide are warmly welcomed to encounter and participate in a diverse programme of dance.
Wainsgate Dances trusts and supports dance artists to make the work they feel drawn to make; holds daily dance sessions for people of all ages; programmes audacious and uncompromising performance and workshops, and hosts artists from around the world who offer dance activities for a wide range of participants.
Wainsgate Dances is recognised as a beacon for dance makers and audiences looking for rigorous and challenging encounters with dance in an open, welcoming and supportive environment.
What we’re doing is hopeful action. It happens because we believe that dance, and the artists who dedicate their lives to asking questions through it, offer something unique to contemporary cultural life.
Dance can transgress, confront and exhilarate in directly physical ways; holding and suspending complexity, ambiguity and nuance.
We are developing an alternative artist-led model for dance programming, carving a path around and through the challenges that the arts are currently facing.
This is a space for artists who want to explore and make; and audiences and participants who want to engage with their work.
