Chisenhale Dance Space in the 1980s

: a Cultural Materialist Analysis

Abstract

Chisenhale Dance Space is an artist-led independent dance organisation based in Tower Hamlets, London. It is the oldest organisation of its kind in the UK. This thesis answers the research question ‘What was Chisenhale Dance Space?’ by providing the first historiographical account of the organisation. Informed by the work of cultural theorist Raymond Williams this thesis adopts a cultural materialist approach to analysing Chisenhale’s history. The thesis analyses Chisenhale’s history whilst also examining the society within which it was located. This thesis utilizes Williams’ concept of structure of feeling as a guiding principle to examine the collective historical experience of Chisenhale Dance Space in the 1980s. This guiding principle propounds an analysis that accounts for Chisenhale’s social and material context as well as the lived experience of its historical moment. The framework of analysis that supports this thesis draws on scholarship from cultural studies, critical theory, dance studies, human geography, affect theory and archival studies, including the work of Sara Ahmed, Brenda Dixon-Gottschild, Stuart Hall, Henri Lefebvre, Doreen Massey, Derek McCormack, Edward Said, Edward Soja, Janet Wolff and Raymond Williams. This research reveals the complex nexus of social and material relations that both shaped and were shaped by Chisenhale’s work in the 1980s. This thesis provides an original contribution to the current understanding of British dance history in the twentieth century. The outcome is a historical narrative that not only provides an account of Chisenhale’s development through the 1980s but also examines how it attempted to challenge social, cultural and artistic conventions. This thesis therefore elucidates Chisenhale’s relationship to British society, its role within British independent dance and its position within a broader ecosystem of ideas, discourse and organisations within the arts. The use of Williams’ structure of feeling in this thesis is novel within dance studies. Thus, this thesis extends and theorizes Williams’ work within dance studies, demonstrating not only how it might be applied to dance analysis but also that specific insights can be gained from such an approach. These insights demonstrate how dance, and its organisations, are enmeshed in their social, historical and material conditions. This enables an analysis that explores the ways that dance participates in the production of ideologies and how it might thus be implicated in or a challenge to hegemony.

Date of Award	28 Oct 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Supervisor	Simon Ellis (Supervisor) & Rosemary Lee (Supervisor)