Volunteer Ascendance Trustee

What will you be doing?

Become an Ascendance Trustee We are looking for new people to help play a part in shaping our future by joining our existing Board of Trustees! Ascendance is a Dance for Health Charity based in Leeds, Bradford and Yorkshire. Primarily working with people with Parkinson’s, neurological conditions and older people, Ascendance runs an annual programme of community classes, outreach and workshops, digital work and a training and performance company – Fuse Dance Collective – who perform across the UK and develop their skills as choreographers, teachers and creative directors. Ascendance aims to bring joy, creativity and connectivity to everything we do, and we are proud to have developed multiple partnerships and collaborations with artists and organisations across the North. These include Leeds Rhinos Foundation, Karmand Community Centre, Northern Ballet, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Marie Curie Hospice and Bradford 2025. Ascendance is operated by a team of paid employees, freelancers and volunteers and answer to the board of trustees, who are all volunteers. What are we looking for?   We believe the best work happens when passionate people from different backgrounds, communities and experiences come together with a shared goal. This is what we want for everything Ascendance does, including our Board of Trustees.  We want to hear from anyone who shares our values and believes in helping our charity improve the health and wellbeing of older adults. If you want to be part of our ambitions and want to support the development of our community company, Fuse Dance Collective, and if you want to help us reach more people with movement disorders and other conditions that affect mobility, please get in touch. We want people from all backgrounds, communities, and experiences to be part of Ascendance both in terms of how the company is run and in the stories that we tell. We want to welcome some new people to join our existing board of trustees to do just that - to be part of shaping the company’s future. 

What are we looking for?

We want to hear from anyone who shares our values and believes in helping our charity to improve health & wellbeing of people with movement disorders and inspire others to dance through high quality dance and film works.  In addition, we have also identified some skills and experience that we think would enrich the diversity of our Board: we definitely don’t expect one person to have experience in all of these! 

experience in working in or creating disability-led arts, in particular those with movement disorders  skills in developing and running arts projects that are designed to welcome people who are often prevented from taking part  experience working with young people  experience in empowering communities and bringing people together  expertise in running or managing a (small) business  broad professional networks in Leeds / Yorkshire – (this might be in a specific area such as community arts, or local businesses)  experience supporting the development of artistic talent of (young) people or of those in the wider community  experience working in the performing arts sector, the arts sector, or the cultural sector more broadly  never having worked in performing arts, theatre, arts or cultural sector 

While the most important thing is that you share our passion for social change and global justice, there are also some vital voices, viewpoints and experiences of our society that we would like to increase on our current board of trustees throughout this process: 

People who identify as disabled People with movement disorders  People of South Asian heritage  People of African or Caribbean heritage  People who identify as LGBTQ+

What difference will you make?

We want to hear from anyone who shares our values and believes in helping our charity to improve health & wellbeing of people with movement disorders and inspire others to dance through high quality dance and film works.  Be a part of changing the lives of a wonderful dancing community. You will be hooked on the positivity and creativity of this group.  You can find out more about the company and being a trustee by viewing the information below and by following the company on our social media channels by visiting our website.