WANTED: Chair of the Board of Trustees

25.10.2021

3 min read

After seven years, the current Chair of the Board of Cheshire Dance is standing down. Whilst she will be staying on the Board to support induction and beyond, we are looking for someone to replace her as Chair.

Deadline for Expressions of Interest: 26th November 2021

Cheshire Dance is a registered charity with an annual turnover of approximately £400,000. We are a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England, receive financial support from Cheshire West and Chester Council and partner with multiple organisations across the public, arts, education and voluntary sectors.

Our founding vision is to ensure that ‘everyone has access to dance and is able to benefit from its transformative power’. We embrace the Arts Council’s creative case for diversity and can evidence very strong alignment to its new Let’s Create Strategy. We specialize in developing engagement amongst under-represented communities through a wide range of conveniently located weekly sessions across the area, delivered by experienced and supportive dance artists/facilitators. We employ artists, deliver a nationally recognized CPD programme and support the career and project development aspirations of many choreographers and dance facilitators.

From 2018 we became the lead organisation of Dance Consortia North West which has just launched a major research programme and the Producer of Now Northwich, an annual Dance and Street Arts Festival, with the 3rd edition scheduled for April 30th 2022.

Through the pandemic Cheshire Dance adapted its offer, delivering more than 68% of its pre-pandemic programme of dance participation, largely via Zoom but also through distributing offline resources and then later through blended live/online sessions. We are now bringing groups back to face-to-face sessions and the demand is strong. We heard very clearly from our dance community during the lockdowns, when everyone was so concentrated on sustaining the basics in life, just how vital their weekly dance sessions were to their wellbeing. For many it was their only contact with the outside world from one week to the next.

At a time when dance-centred education policy is going backwards we are successfully bucking the trend and continuing to work with Head Teachers, schools and learners in both formal and informal contexts. We share so many aims around creativity, enabling access, facilitating physical learning, enriching the wider curriculum and opening pathways to future careers.

For the Chair, we are looking for someone as passionate, committed and driven as we are to head our small but perfectly formed Board.

Together with all the usual requisites of Board Membership such as acting in Cheshire Dance’s interests, ensuring good governance and having an understanding of our Charity’s legal responsibilities and liabilities, we would like to find someone with leadership skills and the ability to Chair meetings effectively.

Someone dynamic who will listen, inspire and motivate us, advocate for Cheshire Dance and its stakeholders and develop consensus in our ongoing strategic development.

Someone who is driven, like all of us to realise a decisive vision and deliver on our strong mission and creative direction.

Someone who will support the staff and freely and openly challenge the Director.

We value generosity, honesty and a sense of humour.

We respect each other and champion diversity and collaborative working.

It is not vital that you have active experience of the world of dance, but you will share the passion for our purpose.

Whilst we would prefer you to live in or near Cheshire, we ask that you are able to act as an ambassador by representing us at functions and events and be available to attend four annual Board meetings as well as regular meetings with the Director and key stakeholders and the occasional ad hoc discussion.

If you are interested in applying for the role of Chair of the Board of Trustees for Cheshire Dance, please email june@cheshiredance.org to request a Recruitment Pack.


APPLICATIONS & DEADLINE:

The deadline for expressions of interest (written, video or audio recording) is Midnight on the 26th November 2021 to: june@cheshiredance.org

If, prior to applying, you would like an informal chat with the Director of Cheshire Dance, Adam Holloway, and/or the current Chair, Jan Halloran, please email: adam@cheshiredance.org to arrange.

Interviews will take place on Zoom on 10th December 2021.

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