We have successfully danced right across the north of England! And we have a film to prove it!
We
twirled through market towns and shopping malls with groups of eager
flashmobs. We performed in intimate spaces such as living rooms and
village halls.
We carried out workshops in schools and community
organisations, working with dancers of all ages and abilities –
including a group of retirees! And we left an impression wherever we
went.
Audiences were spellbound with our magical performances of
BMX dancing, duets and solos using both traditional and contemporary
techniques.
They were charmed by Indian Dance guru Pratap Pawar, who has danced for both the Queen and JFK.
They
were awestruck by the skills of Keelan Phillips, BMX Champion of the
Flatlands. And they were bowled over by the vision and energy of Balbir
Singh Dance Company (BSDC) staff who worked so hard to deliver a
programme of dance so diverse it will remain in the minds of those who
took part or watched for years to come.
In short, we engaged with sell-out audiences and people from all walks of life, sharing with them a joy and love of dance.
And we loved every minute of it.
We
were greatly aided in our ambitious quest by teaming up with northern
members of the NRTF, including Cheshire Rural Touring Arts, ArtERY Live,
Live Lincs, Highlights Rural Touring Scheme, Spot On Lancashire and
Arts Out West (all members of the NRTF).
The NRTF are starting to gather and share little nuggets of what we
might call “best practice” around the rural touring networks. There are
lots of us doing similar things, from promoters to artists to scheme
managers to members of our audiences, even, and there are lots of good
ideas out there that we want people to share.
Each week, we
will post on twitter and facebook a “Top Tip” from someone – probably no
more than 25 seconds long – which will also sit here on the NRTF
website into the future. The idea is that someone else might see it and
think “I/we could do that too.” Please look out for them as they appear –
and please think about whether you too could offer up a Top Tip. Get
in touch with us if you want to make some – you might be a performer, a
promoter, a member of the audience or a scheme manager – it’s very easy,
all we need from you is the short raw video clip from your phone or
tablet and we will do the rest.
Once we have shared the top tips they will stored in the Our Work section of the website for you refer to whenever you like.
If you’d like to offer some advice please send your top tip videos to admin@nrtf.org.uk.
BEING BOLD – NRTF CONFERENCE 2017 Wednesday 28 & Thursday 29 June 2017Nottingham Lakeside Arts We are delighted to announce that ONLINE BOOKING IS NOW OPEN!
Our
annual Rural Touring Conference provides a unique opportunity for
anyone involved in rural touring to discuss and determine the
environment and practical operation of their sector. Following
2016’s sell-out New Directions showcase festival, this year’s
conference takes a fresh look at new approaches of developing work for
rural touring and practical discussion sessions around work for children
and young people, wider access and spoken word considering proactive
steps the sector can take to celebrate and continue to develop rural
touring. The NRTF 2017 Conference is co-hosted and administered by Northants Touring Arts / New Perspectives Touring Company. We are delighted to announce that thanks to an award from Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy the conference will include a sector training session on Fundraising
Fundamentals in Non-Urban Areas. This will be tailored to be suitable
for fundraising needs at a local, regional and national level and be
appropriate for promoters, touring schemes and companies and performers. We are also delighted to announce a sponsorship deal with TicketSource which will support our very first Rural Touring Award ceremony and provide us with an online booking facility for this event. The TicketSource Rural Touring Award winners will be announced on Wednesday evening and we are delighted that Stella Duffy OBE Co-Director of Fun Palaces will join us on the opening day with a provocation at the start of the
conference and will compere the inaugural TicketSource Rural Touring
Awards. Other confirmed speakers and contributors include:• Alan Lyddiard, Theatre director• Jack McNamara, Artistic Director, New Perspectives• Michael Pinchbeck, Writer and Artist• Dr Joanna Robinson, Associate Professor in Drama and Performance, University of Nottingham Outline conference timetable: (Please note that more details will follow next week) Wednesday 28 June 201711am – 12noon Registration12noon- 1.30pm Lunch1.30pm Welcome, introductions, keynote2pm – 3.30pm Session 13.30pm – 4pm Coffee break4pm – 5pm Session 25.30pm – 6.45pm Session 37.15pm – 8.45pm Conference dinner9pm TicketSource Rural Touring Awards9.30pm – midnight After hours networking Thursday 29 June 20177.30am – 8.30am Breakfast9.15 – 9.30am NRTF AGM9.30am – 11am Session 411am – 11.30am Coffee break11am – 12.30pm Session 512.30pm – 1.30pm Lunch1.30pm – 4.30pm Conference round up. Fundraising Fundamentals The conference is for anyone and everyone with an involvement or interest in rural touring:• Scheme staff and board members• Volunteer promoters• Independent artists and producers• Partner organisations and stakeholders A full time place:
for both Wednesday and Thursday includes all meals, refreshments,
sessions and b+b accommodation in modern, en-suite student rooms on site
at Nottingham University and costs £150 for members. £175 for
non-members. Please note NRTF associate membership is £25 and can be
bought on line at www.ruraltouring.org Online booking and payment by credit / debit card is NOW OPEN! Please
note that you will need to complete one booking registration at a time,
but it is possible to select to continue shopping before proceeding to
payment, so you can complete all your bookings in one go. Click here to book your place(s) – https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/national-rural-touring-forum In case of any conference booking queries please contact: Northants Touring Arts on 0115 9739121/07966 454387 or admin@northantstouringarts.co.uk
Somerset Arts organisation Take Art, in partnership with Surrey
Arts and China Plate, has received £92k from the Arts Council’s
Strategic Touring Fund and £24k from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for the
Early Years regional Theatre project Hopper, focusing in Somerset and
Surrey in 2017/18.
The
pioneering Early Years project will create opportunities for over 3,500
babies and pre-school children to experience and influence the
development of great art and culture in their Early Years setting. Taking
place over two years, Hopper will bring specially created theatre shows
into theatres, pre-schools, nurseries, libraries and children’s
centres, focusing on children from poorer less advantaged areas. Phil
Gibby the SW Area Director for the Arts Council said, “We’re really
pleased to be supporting Hopper as we believe that all children and
young people, whoever they are and wherever they live, should have the
opportunity to experience the richness of arts and culture.” Hopper
will also support seven theatre companies in developing 70+ high
quality and relevant performances. Children and Early Years staff will
be invited to take part in the development process. This means that the
companies can work with the under fives to make the best shows possible
for them. Gina Westbrook, Director of Early
Years at Take Art said, “A significant part of Hopper is to stimulate
greater interest among companies to develop new work and take it into
Early Years settings. Hopper will also enable children to have a voice
in how this new work is made for them.” Phil
Gibby went onto say, “The project looks set to develop a local,
sustainable touring infrastructure for Early Years work and build strong
and productive relationships.” During the
project Take Art will work in partnership with Surrey Arts and China
Plate and also with key local theatres; The Brewhouse in Taunton;
Bridgwater Arts Centre, The egg in Bath and Camberley Theatre in Surrey. Hopper
will start in January 2017, with a year of development and planning,
followed by a three seasons of touring and performance. Take
Art is currently recruiting an experienced Project Manager to oversee
the relationship between the Early Years settings and the companies.
Click here to find out more. Hopper
is launching a national call out to identify artists/companies
interested in developing new shows. Please visit the Take Art website or
click here for more information.
This
year the East Midlands touring company New Perspectives and rural
touring scheme manager of Northants Touring Arts co-host the conference
on the leafy Nottingham University campus at Nottingham Lakeside Arts
from Wednesday 28 – Thursday 29 June 2017.
The conference will
feature curated sessions exploring NRTF’s priority areas for the next
NPO period: e.g. Being Bold; New ways of working; Disability led work;
Children and Young People; Spoken Word
Each session will individually curated to feature a mixture of performance extract, provocation and discussion.
A
fresh approach to this year’s conference is designed to appeal to a
wide mix of scheme managers, promoters, producers and artists and will
feature the inaugural Rural Touring Awards. We will be inviting
nominations very soon…
This two-day conference comes at a keen
price with a full time places for members £145 which will include 1
night’s accommodation on campus at Cavendish Hall (good standard student
ensuite facility), breakfast, lunches, dinner and refreshments plus
full conference programme. PLUS we will be offering voluntary promoter /
board member, special project worker bursaries with details announced
when booking opens.
SAVE THE DATE: Wednesday 28 – Thursday 29 June 2017
Booking
will open shortly, in the meantime add the dates in your diaries,
forward this information on to colleagues and interested parties from
your area who will be interested in joining in the conversation.
We
invite you to be bold and ready to explore new ideas, make new
contacts, catch up with friends and colleagues, to celebrate, be
inspired and hatch future plans!
See more about the venue: www.lakesidearts.org.uk Extend your stay: www.experiencenottinghamshire.com
Travelling to Nottingham University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD
By
Train: The nearest train stations are Nottingham or Beeston. Taxis and
Buses are available from both stations. It is approximately 15 minutes
by Taxi.
By Tram: There is a direct tram service from Nottingham Train Station.
By
Plane: The nearest airport is East Midlands Airport. From East
Midlands Airport you can take the Trent Barton Indigo service directly
to the campus or the Skylink bus to Nottingham. Buses leave from outside
the Airport Arrivals hall. You can also walk to the taxi rank on the
terminal forecourt and take a direct taxi to the University. The cost of
a single/one way journey is approximately £20.
By Car: Leave the
M1 motorway at Junction 25 to join the A52 to Nottingham. Follow the
A52 for approximately 4 miles, at the Toby Carvery roundabout turn right
onto the A6464, turn left at the next roundabout to enter the
University’s West Entrance.
The National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) is a unique charity committed
to driving new initiatives and widening audience access and engagement
in the rural touring arts sector nationally.
Following nine years
of outstanding stewardship the current Chair is stepping down and we
are now seeking a new Chair to complement and strengthen our existing
board and offer exceptional leadership, acting as a spokesperson and
board chair, jointly steering the organisation through an exciting time
of new projects and continued growth.
We are seeking an
experienced outward facing professional with excellent communication
skills and a passion for the arts in a rural and community context to
lead this wide ranging membership organisation, harnessing the
collective skills of our dynamic board.
As an equal opportunities
and equal access organisation we welcome applications from all suitably
qualified persons regardless of their age, disability, gender, gender
reassignment, race, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy or marital
status.
The National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) is a registered
charity, a limited company and receives funding as an Arts Council
England national portfolio organisation. Governed by its members through
a voluntary board of management, the NRTF works strategically with a
range of partners to develop a national programme that delivers high
quality artistic work and cultural experiences.
Highlights Rural Touring Scheme, which covers most of the three counties of the
North of England (Cumbria, Durham and Northumberland), has recently
enjoyed two pieces of good news.
Firstly, they’ve just
announced their first commercial sponsorship deal and have also received
funding in partnership with Arts Alive from the Arts Council’s
Catalyst: Evolve programme.
H&H Reeds Printers, a Cumbrian
based print and publishing firm, will support Highlights with
promotional marketing and activities in 2017, including subsidising the
production of their two seasonal brochures.
Dene Marshall, Sales
Director at H&H Reeds Printers said: “The programme of events
offers us the opportunity to support both Highlights and the arts across
the North of England, and to showcase the type of work we produce.”
Barbara
Slack Co-Director at Highlights, said: “This, our first commercial
partnership, is extremely important to us and marks a huge milestone.
Like Highlights, H&H Reeds Printers serve a wide rural area, and
have a strong community ethos. With their support, we can continue to
help village halls offer professional performances to rural
communities.”
And
thanks to an Arts Council award through the Catalyst: Evolve Programme,
Highlights is also able to match pound for pound the support received
from H&H Reeds and any future donations and sponsorship over the
next 2 years.
The Evolve programme supports organisations with a
limited track record in fundraising to enable them to attract more
private giving. It does this by supporting organisations that have
recently started fundraising to achieve step change in their ability to
earn philanthropic income.
Well done Highlights!
You can download Highlights’ spring 2017 brochure here.
Full listings of all the shows and venues can be found here
Lost Dog – Paradise Lost (Lies Unopened Beside Me)
As
slowly but surely the days begin to lengthen, it’s time to announce the
latest programme of dance coming to village halls and community venues
as part of the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI). The spring season
will bring dance styles from Kathak to Contemporary to rural communities
around the UK.
New for Spring 2017 is Salaam, a new
production from leaders in South Asian dance and music Sonia Sabri
Company. Salaam revisits the roots of traditional Kathak and combines
expressive and rhythmic dance with live music. One of the UK’s
best-known touring contemporary dance companies, Phoenix Dance Theatre,
will tour ReFINED, a new show based on the company’s repertoire of
solos, duets, trios and quartets.
Several companies will return to
the rural touring circuit this Spring following successful Autumn
dates. Lost Dog will bring the critically acclaimed Paradise Lost (lies
unopened beside me) to the North and Midlands, while Joan Cleville Dance
continue to tour the playful and uplifting Plan B for Utopia, which
combines dance and storytelling with a dose of humour.
Lila
Dance’s immersive dance experience Deluge will see members of local
communities perform alongside professional dancers as venues are
transformed into evacuation centres, set up to tackle the aftermath of
an imaginary disaster, and Spiltmilk will present Blast from the Past, a
fast-paced race through seven decades of British pop culture.
Meanwhile
Norwegian Dance Theatre Company Panta Rei will tour two productions:
the moving I Wish Her Well, which draws on the stories of women closely
related to the dancers, as well as the diaries of a sixteen year
old girl; and Lullaby, which explores notions of masculinity,
accompanied by live music.
Sonia Sabri – Salaam
Speaking
about the shows, Claire Smith, Project Manager for the RTDI said
“Working along side the myriad of rural touring schemes in the
countryside, we will be presenting some of the most original
contemporary dance companies in these exciting spaces, giving audiences
the chance to experience top quality performance in the heart of their
communities.”
The Rural Touring Dance Initiative is a three year
scheme for making and touring dance performances to and for rural areas.
Made possible by a grant from Arts Council England’s Lottery-funded
Strategic Touring Programme, the initiative is led by National Rural
Touring Forum (NRTF), which joined with dance institution The Place,
arts charity Take Art and independent producing studio China Plate to
deliver the scheme.
In Autumn 2017 the Rural Touring Dance
Initiative will present its first show especially commissioned for
village halls. The Keepers, created by acclaimed choreographer/director
Ben Wright, is a seafaring story conceived for small spaces, told
through dance and music.
Founded in 1997, the NRTF is a member-led
organisation that works to deliver high quality art experiences that
strengthen communities, providing the rural touring network with
training, information and networking services as well as promoting
better understanding of the rural touring network through research and
advocacy.
The Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) have announced their second dance performance menu.
The
new menu, which has been sent out the all rural touring schemes
features a new cohort of companies with work to be toured from September
2017 to May 2018.
Lost Dog – Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me)Background Last
year the National Rural Touring Forum joined forces with The Place,
Take Art and China Plate to launch a brand new three-year initiative
designed to assist in the making and touring of contemporary accessible
dance to rural areas. The project has been made possible by a grant from
Arts Council England’s lottery funded Strategic Touring Programme. So Far… We
were delighted by the response to the first Menu which was distributed
in January 16 (covering autumn 16 and spring 17) We had expressions of
interest from 99% of schemes and were able to programme 64 shows from
the eight companies offered. The initial
response from schemes, promoters audiences and companies has been
extremely positive. Thanks to everyone’s tenacity we exceeded our
audience targets and are beginning to create an awareness in the dance
world that Rural Touring is a great place to make work for… New Work Menu
2 contains eight shows being brought to the rural touring network for
the very first time including world renowned choreographer Ben Wright’s
brand new piece Keepers which is being made through 2017 in partnership
with the RTDI as a result of our artist development programme. 75
companies applied through the call out this year from which we have
chosen seven, including Joseph Toonga and The Hiccup Project, both of
whom were part of New Directions in Falmouth. These companies were
selected to offer a range of ‘ways into‘ dance, which we hope will help
all schemes/promoters, irrespective of their past history of promoting
dance to get inspired about programming it. Most companies have not
toured rurally before so the RTDI has already invested resources from
the project to ‘rural proof’ their approach to touring. While the cost
and resourcing of the different pieces vary from company to company, the
cost to schemes remains constant at around £600 per performance. Highlights of Menu 1 As
well as our amazing new shows, we’re bringing you a second opportunity
to programme some of the fantastic work that went out in menu 1.
Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me), Plan B for Utopia and May
Contain Food, May Contain You are being offered again as we feel there
is so much additional potential in these pieces. They are now ‘broken
in’ tried and tested pieces so we are offering these with a straight
subsidy of £200 per show. We are really excited by the choice of companies on offer – we hope you will be too. You can view the full RTDI second menu here.
INN CROWD is a programme of high quality live literature performances touring to
rural pubs across the South East and East of England from 2016 – 2019.
It is intended to help reinforce pubs as central to rural community
life by bringing exceptional cultural experiences to new audiences.
Applause Rural Touring and Creative Arts East are working with Pub is the Hub and artistic partners New Writing South and Writers’ Centre Norwich to deliver INN CROWD. We are looking for three sorts of performances: Ready-to-Go:
shows, sets or performances that have already been developed, have
already had runs or tours, have records of critical or audience feedback
and are available for booking now. Reshape:
shows, sets or performances that have been fully or partially developed
and can be reshaped to suit the Inn Crowd scheme with minimal
additional development time and assistance from the Inn Crowd
consortium. To tour Sept 2017 onwards. Co-Production:
ideas for new shows, sets or performances that can be developed with
time and assistance from the Inn Crowd consortium. To tour Feb 2018
onwards Performances can be suitable for adult
or family audiences. Our expansive definition of Live Literature
includes elements of theatre, poetry, spoken word, storytelling,
literary adaptation, comedy, live art and audience participation …but
the starting point for performances that we consider for this scheme
must be written or composed text. Ready-to- Go:
artists fee ranging from £350 – £750 (inc VAT travel costs, equipment
hire, accommodation and other expenses.) per booked performance Reshape:
up to £1,000 development budget + rehearsal space at Writers’ Centre
Norwich and / or New Writing South in Brighton + artists fee ranging
from £350 – £750 (inc VAT travel costs, equipment hire, accommodation
and other expenses.) per booked performance Co-Production:
up to £3,000 development budget + rehearsal space at Writers’ Centre
Norwich and / or New Writing South in Brighton artists fee ranging from
£350 – £750 (inc VAT travel costs, equipment hire, accommodation and
other expenses.) per booked performance For more information and how to apply please visit www.inncrowd.org.uk/performers
This short form is designed to help you asses whether or not your show is Rural Touring ready. We take you through the very basic needs of rural touring and give you a list of things to consider. We also point you to other helpful resources and pages along the way. Please note this form is NOT a way of submitting your show to be considered for touring but should be used as a tool to equip yourself with the knowledge you need to approach schemes.
