About the Night:

Mind the Gap is an ongoing series of events, bringing together improvised performances in different mediums. Every MTG, with its individual constellation of acts, curators and audiences has a different feel but is always full of curiosity, creativity and surprises.

In this spirit, we present ‘Mind The Gap: Open Night’! A special edition of MTG, featuring an ‘open mic’ style element. The night will have 4 Curated Acts and at least 4 Open Acts, selected at random from people who put their names forward on the night.

Past line ups have included dancers, musicians, spoken word artists, actors, comedians, drag artists and zine makers and as MTG continues, remains open to new connections, suggestions, proposals and experiments.

'It is so inspiring and necessary to have such a playful and honest space where people can share and witness live creativity’ - an audience member from MTG8

Want to perform as one of the 'Open Acts'?

Mind the Gap: Open Night, will have 4 ‘Open Acts’. These will be 5 minute slots, filled on the night by audience members who want to share an improvised performance in any medium or style.

Before the show starts we will collect names of interested individuals/groups and then, from all names presented, we will select 4 at random.

For these acts, the stage will be lit and a mic available but no further tech assistance will be available.

To sign up for an ‘Open Act’ you must have a ticket to the night but the selected ‘Open Acts’ will receive £20 and the cost of one ticket returned.

About the Curator:

Théïa Maldoom, is a London-based dance artist whose work spans performance, movement direction, visual arts and production. She gravitates towards multidisciplinary projects and often involves improvisation.

In 2022, whilst regularly performing her own movement and voice improvisations, she started Mind The Gap, a performance evening of improvised acts from different mediums. From then till now, still following a curiosity to engage with other artists and learn more about different improvisation practices, there have been 8 nights, in 3 venues and over 70 artists engaged with.

Aside from MTG, recently, Théïa has been working with a variety of musicians, performing as a clown with Chewy She on tour across the UK and movement directing videos with The Last Dinner Party, amongst others.

Important threads in her thinking are; trusting intuition, enjoying working with others, humour and expansive understandings of who we are and who we can be.

About Scratch Renaissance:

‘Scratch Renaissance’ is a yearlong adrenaline shot for the grassroots dance and performance sector. From May 2025 to July 2026, CDS will host a series of monthly scratch nights at our East London venue. In line with our artist-led ethos, we will work closely with six small artist-led collectives to create six new scratch night models. These models will explore what a scratch night can be while supporting marginalised artists in showcasing their work for the first time.

Scratch Renaissance is supported using public funding from Arts Council England.

Accessibility:

Please note, we are 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 committed to removing other barriers to access. If you would like to talk to us about your access needs, please contact: sam@chisenhaledancespace.co.uk. Read more about our commitments to anti-ableism as part of our Artist Community Culture Document