WHO WE ARE
Chhaya Collective are a female-led dance and live music company.
Our performance and community projects strive to amplify women's voices and share real-life stories of women in the 21st Century. We bring people together through our performance work, community projects, workshops and events - all of which combine dance, music, theatre and costume design. We aim to create collaborative, cross cultural and interdisciplinary work that speaks in multiple tongues.
Chhaya Collective was founded by Kay Crook in 2013 to connect artists in Bangalore (India) and Devon (UK). Kay has worked between UK and India for 10 years and initially formed Chhaya as a means to engage artists in cross-cultural collaborative performance and film projects, in response to societal issues.
Chhaya Collective deliver projects nationally and internationally and are Company in Residence at Pavilion Dance South West (PDSW) 2021-24 and Associate Company at Exeter Phoenix Theatre.
Chhaya has toured and delivered projects for Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts (India), PERA School of Performing Arts (North Cyprus), Exeter Phoenix (UK), Kerala National Theatre (India), LABarts (Portugal), AMATA (UK), Landmark Theatre (UK), Teatro Bandeira (Portugal), FITIJ Festival (Portugal), Trip Space (UK), 101 Outdoor Arts (UK), Hall for Cornwall (UK), Shoonya Centre for Arts and Somatic Practices (India), Tanzart- Kirschau (Germany), Lshva (India), Barbican Theatre (UK), Royal Academy of Dance (UK), Atheneaum (UK), ACASO Festival (Portugal), Tacchi Morris (UK), InspirED (UK), The University of Chichester (UK), Cygnet Theatre (UK), University of Bedfordshire (UK) and WOW Festival (UK), amongst others.
Kay Crook founded Chhaya Youth Dance Company in 2015, for young aspiring dancers aged 14-21 years to engage in professional level, diverse dance training in Devon. Chhaya Youth were selected to represent the South West at the National UDance Festival 2018 (UK).
Chhaya Collective's current touring work and projects are supported by Arts Council England, Dance in Devon, Exeter Phoenix, FUSE Diverse Dance, AMATA, UOB, Barican Theatre, Dartington, 101 Outdoor Arts and PDSW. Our previous UK-India work was supported by Asian Arts Agency UK, Shoonya (India), Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts (India), Arts Council England and British Council.
Chhaya Collective have been commissioned to make work for Mapdance Company (UK) (2023), PERA School of Performing Arts (North Cyprus) (2019), Arts University Bournemouth (UK) (2022), The Remarkables (UK) (2022), Grace & Growl (UK) (2022), FITIJ Festival (Portugal) (2019), 3Fall Dance Company (UK) (2021), Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts (India) (2016) and Bath Spa University (2023).
"DYNAMIC. ALIVE. VITAL -
A RISING POWER"
She Who Knows Magazine
"Disturbingly powerful, Exquisite"
Arts Lab Dartington
I wholly support Chhaya Collective's work, vision and dedication towards discovering a common ground for cultural experiences to form a new fabric of movement aesthetic.
Aakash Odedra, Aakash Odedra Dance Company
'Chhaya are empowering women through movement arts - it's a powerful way to break the stereotypes"
Bangalore Times (india)
