Rural Touring Dance Initiative

A man resting his arms on the shoulders of a woman, who is knelt behind the legs of a woman lying on the floor.

Rural Touring Dance Initiative

In March 2015, Arts Council England’s ‘Rural evidence and data review’ found that only 2% of NPO funded dance companies toured to rural areas in 2012/13.

From March 2015 – December 2021, China Plate joined forces with the National Rural Touring Forum, The Place and Take Art to launch an innovative initiative for making and touring dance performances to rural areas. The aim of the project was to seek out great dance companies that were excited to tour rurally, and to support rural promoters and schemes to build audiences for dance in rural spaces. Originally a 3-year project, the Rural Touring Dance Initiative has been extended until 2026, receiving funding from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Arts Council England.

It’s current partners (The Place, Highlights, NRTF, Sonia Sabri Company, Take Art) will aim to support 10 new associate venues to programme dance in rural areas and market towns, many of them in Levelling Up for Culture places, the funding will also enable RTDI to support eight dance artists and companies per year to tour their work to rural areas, with over 200 performances and 90 workshops expected between autumn 2023 and summer 2026.

Previous artists have included:

Alleyne Dance, bgroup, Corali, Curious Seed, The Hiccup Project, Panta Rei, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Protein, James Wilton Dance, Just Us Dance Theatre, Lila Dance, Nikki and JD, Uchenna Dance, Corali, Sadhana, Shane Shambhu, Tom Dale Dance, Dan Watson, Joan Cleville, Lost Dog, Keira Martin, New Art Cub, Lanre Malaolu, Slanjayva Danza and Spilt Milk.

For more information, please visit the Rural Touring Dance Initiative website.

Same Same.. But Different by Sonia Sabri Company
Photo © Simon Richardson

Trailer by filmmaker Rachel Bunce

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Rural Touring Dance Initiative brings dance back to rural venues with a programme of works from leading dance companies comprising new shows and returning favourites. To find out what shows are coming up next, please visit the Rural Touring Dance Initiative website.

Please note dates may be subject to change, therefore please contact local schemes for confirmed details.