Chhandam Chitresh Das Dance Company

Chhandam Chitresh Das Dance Company produces traditional, innovative and collaborative works of North Indian classical Kathak dance, recognized by its representation of both Hindu and Muslim culture. Through performances, national and international touring, an arts education program that reaches 6,000 K-12 children, and the largest Indian classical dance school in North America, founder Pandit Chitresh Das and his organization strive to preserve a classical art form, both within the Bay Area’s South Asian population, and across cultural groups. The organization has been growing both artistically and programmatically, and will implement its new strategic plan to take full advantage of the opportunities currently available. Organizational Effectiveness support from Hewlett will enable the organization to develop an individual donor strategy and systems for continued growth, thus creating a sustainable revenue source to implement long range goals.

Chhandam Chitresh Das Dance Company produces traditional, innovative, and collaborative works of North Indian classical kathak dance, recognized by its representation of both Hindu and Muslim culture. Through Bay Area performances, national and international tours, an arts education program that reaches 6,000 K-12 children, and the largest Indian classical dance school in North America, founder Pandit Chitresh Das and his organization strive to preserve a classical art form, engaging both the Bay Area’s South Asian population and other cultural groups.

The vision of the Chhandam Chitresh Das Dance Company (CCDDC) has been, since 1980, to produce, increase awareness of, and teach the traditional North Indian classical Kathak dance, recognized by its representation of both Hindu and Muslim culture. Through performances, national and international touring, an arts education program that reaches 6,000 K-12 children, and the largest Indian classical dance school in North America, CCDDC founder Pandit Chitresh Das and his organization strive to preserve a classical art form, both within the Bay Area’s South Asian population, and across cultural groups. Hewlett has provided support for both a strategic planning process in the past two years, as well as a resulting project to improve marketing strategies. These planning processes have raised to the surface a major challenge for the organization: staff fills multiple roles, reducing their effectiveness. This is particularly true for the Executive Director, who holds too many positions to be sustainable. Support for CCDDC would provide coaching of key staff members through the process of strategic decision-making and prioritizing in the implementation of the strategic plan as part of its shift from a small volunteer-based organization to a mid-size professional organization.