The National Rural Touring Forum has launched a call-out for eight artists or companies to take part in the three-year Rural Touring Dance Initiative between 2015 and 2018 in partnership with The Place, China Plate and Take Art, with one full production grant of up to £45,000 and two seed commissions of £3,600 available to develop new dance work.
Four artists or companies will be chosen to tour existing dance shows from autumn 2016 to spring 2017, and four will be chosen to develop new shows to tour from autumn 2017 to spring 2018.
Aimed at addressing the current under-representation of dance in rural touring, (Arts Council England’s Rural evidence and data review in March 2015 found that only 2% of NPO-funded dance companies toured to rural areas in 2012/13), The Rural Touring Dance Initiative will have a total budget of £500,000, £379,560 of which represents a successful bid to Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund. Planning for the three-year programme started in May 2015 with the project finishing in July 2018.
The project will also include a week-long ‘Darkroom’ residency for four dance companies to develop ideas for rural touring. This will take place in November 2015 and will include time spent working in a village hall environment. Two companies will then be offered seed commissions of £3,600 each to further develop shows.
The project will be delivered in partnership with The Place London, independent theatre studio and development specialists China Plate and Somerset’s rural touring scheme and county dance agency Take Art. The first menu of work will be offered to schemes in January 2016, and will include work from Phoenix Dance, Sonia Sabri, Spilt Milk, Norwegian Dance Company Panta Rei.
Ralph Lister, Development Director for NRTF said, “this is a really exciting opportunity to raise the quality and range of dance work available to audiences living in rural areas. The Initiative is also an invitation to dance companies to discover the delights that rural touring can offer.
"Each of the project partners bring a complementary set of knowledge skills to the initiative and in addition we acknowledge the crucial role our rural touring scheme members will play, developing and supporting volunteer village promoters to expand their appetite for dance.”
Eddie Nixon, Director of Theatre and Artist Development, The Place added: “we’re delighted to be working with NRTF, China Plate and Take Art on this project. We’re looking forward to introducing rural audiences around the country to the rich diversity of performance that dance artists are making at the moment, and to supporting those dance artists to embrace the huge opportunities that rural touring has to offer.
As part of our artist development programme at The Place, we work with dance makers to develop new audiences and build sustainable livelihoods, as well as to hone their craft, and this project supports all these areas in an exciting new direction.”
Michelle Dickson, Director Touring and Director North, Arts Council England said, "I am delighted that we are supporting the Rural Touring Dance Initiative through our National Lottery funded Strategic touring programme. This project has been driven by the rural demand for exceptional performance.
"The partnership between Take Art, The Place and China Plate will not only create and tour high quality dance to audiences in village halls across the country but it will also develop skills in rural touring in dance companies and local promoters which should help to ensure a long term legacy."
The project will also include two 2.5 day Introduction to Rural Touring labs aimed at dance companies wanting to engage with rural touring, children & young people residencies and an enhanced dance showcase at NRTF’s Annual Conference in July 2016 and July 2017.
Companies and artists who are interested in applying can visit www.theplace.org.uk/rural-touring to download an application form. The closing date for applications is at 10AM on Friday 11 September 2015.