The Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) was a national project which ran for a decade and supported dance artists & rural promoters to make great dance performance events happen in rural spaces.
Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) was launched in 2015 to address the absence of dance in rural spaces.
It went on to deliver a decade of enriching dance experiences in unexpected locations the length and breadth of the UK, proving itself a viable and sustainable touring model in a challenging climate for small-scale touring.
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.
In July 2022, the then 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 enabled RTDI to support eight dance artists & companies per year to tour their work to rural areas, with over 200 performances and 90 workshops between autumn 2023 and summer 2026.
NRTF would like to thank Annabel Jackson for her outstanding contribution to culture and the Rural Touring Dance Initiative.
Listen to Rural Moves podcastPower In Numbers
The statistics for the programme are impressive: A total of 421 dance shows took place delivered by 55 different dance companies. Across more than 400 different venues, 20000 people attended an RTDI dance show.
Of those audiences 98% said they enjoyed the show while 85% said they wanted to see more dance.
RTDI simultaneously inspired audiences and artists while proving that dance can be part of a vibrant cultural offer in rural communities.
8 dance artists and companies…
…supported per year
More than 400 Performances and 90 workshops…
…between Autumn 2023 and Summer 2026
98% of audiences…
…enjoyed the performances
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