"No gig too small” for a union contract: Equity and Chisenhale Dance Space sign agreement for scratch nights

Equity has signed a new agreement with Chisenhale Dance Space, guaranteeing decent terms and conditions for performers in the company’s “Scratch Renaissance” series.

The agreement, covering a series of Scratch Nights produced by Chisenhale Dance Space means that Equity is formally recognised as the trade union for performers participating in the project. Importantly, it ensures minimum standards of engagement and dignity at work and demonstrates that there is no production too small for a union agreement and proper pay, terms and conditions. The Equity agreement ensures minimum rates of pay in an area of dance which is often low or even no pay for performers. It also ensures health and safety in relation to suitable flooring, temperatures and facilities are in place, and that freelancers are paid on time.

In working with Equity, Chisenhale Dance Space - which is based in Tower Hamlets, London - is recognising the importance of union representation, protections and paid work for those in all performing work. The Scratch Renaissance series comprises 12 nights run over the space of a year and focuses on artists showcasing their own work, with between one and half a dozen different performances making up each scratch night. Scratch nights are traditionally a space for artists to showcase bespoke pieces, often as ‘work in progress’, and are an important way for dancers to test material and for audiences to experience a unique dance performance.

Lottie Stables, Equity Industrial Official for Dance, said: “I am delighted that Chisenhale Dance Space has chosen to work with Equity to offer union-agreed terms for this project. This demonstrates to all engagers that fair and dignified terms and conditions of engagement can be issued for small-scale, short-term work undertaken by our members who should have workplace dignity and union protection wherever they work. This is a fantastic step in ensuring that artists creating and performing their own work are encouraged to join the union and able access the vital protections and collective benefits that the union is able to offers them. We hope that by putting this agreement in place, other organisations will similarly engage with the union to ensure those they engage are properly protected in the workplace. We would also encourage performers to ask their engagers about using the appropriate union-agreed terms and conditions for future work.” 

Reece McMahon, Director of CDS, said: “We are proud to be working with Equity to formalise this agreement for our Scratch Renaissance series. At the centre of the project is the aim of revitalising the culture of scratch, and it is vital that this is done in a way that both creates and promotes conditions where artists are respected, valued, and supported in their work. This agreement ensures that performers are not only fairly paid but also protected through union representation."

"It reflects CDS’s ongoing commitment to embedding equitable and ethical practice within our own work, and to advocating for those standards across the sector. I hope this encourages—and paves the way for—a wider uptake of union-agreed standards, particularly when it comes to events like scratch nights, which are vital in supporting early-career artists and the independent ecology, and should be approached with the same rigour, professionalism and care as any other form of engagement.” 

Sam Burkett, Equity Dance Committee, said: “The Dance Committee wants dance artists to know that there is no gig too small for the union to show up and advocate for better pay, terms, and conditions. Scratch nights and other low budget, short term projects are a crucial part of the everyday working lives of dancers and choreographers, and this agreement with Chisenhale Dance Space serves as a great example to other independent arts organisations that they too can engage with the union to better the sector for working artists.”