Projects

Rural Touring Dance Initiative

About the Project

The Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) is a national project which supports dance artists & rural promoters to make great dance performance events happen in rural spaces.

Click on the brochure image to download and view the latest RTDI Menu.

RTDI was launched in 2015 when The Place, National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF), China Plate and Take Art joined forces to address the lack of quality dance in rural spaces. From the start, RTDI has introduced some of the UK’s leading dance companies to rural touring including Lost Dog, Luca Silvestrini’s Protein, Uchenna Dance, Scottish Dance Theatre, Mr & Mrs Clark, Jo Fong and George Orange, and Joshua ‘Vendetta’ Nash.

Over the years RTDI has transformed UK rural dance touring. An evaluation report of the project’s second phase published in 2022, highlighted that 98% of audiences enjoyed watching the performances, with 88% saying the experiences made them want to see more dance, demonstrating demand for high quality touring dance.

In July 2022, the current RTDI partners (The Place, Highlights, NRTF, Sonia Sabri Company, Take Art) were awarded £400,000 from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and £450,000 from Arts Council England to continue the project from 2023 – 2026. As well as supporting 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 enable RTDI to support eight dance artists & companies per year to tour their work to rural areas, with over 200 performances and 90 workshops expected between autumn 2023 and summer 2026.

RTDI: Autumn 23/Spring 24

In July 2022 RTDI partners announced a national open call for dance makers with tour ready shows. Artists who wanted to tour their work to rural areas applied, and the seven shows on this menu were selected by a panel which, for the first time, included an artist and a promoter.

We are excited to support these eight incredible productions to develop tours and meaningful relationships into rural communities. For more information on bookings or engaging with RTDI please contact Courtney Beadle.


    A film by Rachel Bunce

    Project Overview


      Downloads

      Downloads

      Handy guides, resources, information and more for RTDI Artists, promoters and scheme managers. All you need for starting or finding out more about a Rural Touring Dance Initiative…

      Previous Menus

      Related Pages

      Related Pages, Links and News…

      Rural Touring Mechanics

      Interested in touring rurally? We’ve created an online course for you

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      Join NRTF

      Become a member of NRTF to access useful resources, discussion boards, and regular newsletter updates.

      https://www.ruraltouring.org/buy-membership/

      Links

      Partners

      The place

      The Place has been a driving force for contemporary dance in the UK for 45 years.

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      Take Art

      Over the last 9 years Take Art has hosted the Somerset county dance agency, supporting the… infrastructure for the development and promotion of professional dance in Somerset.

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      China Plate

      China Plate’s portfolio of activity encompasses developing, making and programming new work.

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      Contact Our Dance Specialists

      Find out more about our Rural Touring Dance Inititive by getting in touch with our team…

      claire@nrtf.org.uk

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      The Team

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      Join NRTF for full access

      Looking for Artists, Performers, Promoters and Venues to give the rural arts movement a stronger voice

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