Rural Moves

A series of podcasts exploring a decade of dance in rural communities

In six 36-minute episodes, four hosts and their guests explore the legacy of the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI), celebrate the people who made it happen, and look to the future.

Since 2015 RTDI has been facilitating extraordinary encounters between dance artists and rural audiences.

During a decade in which our relationship with live performance has been challenged by a pandemic, and the rise of the online attention economy, RTDI has resolutely championed the joy of intimate connections in community spaces around the UK.

Artists, choreographers, producers, promoters, project staff and partners reflect on their experiences over the last ten years.

Enjoy unique insights into this distinctly different approach to touring and what we can learn from RTDI’s 421 rural shows performed by 55 companies to more than 20000 audience members at over 400 venues across the UK.

Students, artists, producers, promoters, venues and audiences anywhere will find something to inspire in this joyful journey through a decade of dance.

You can listen to Rural Moves online at https://ruralmoves.podbean.com... or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

EPISODES

Episode 1: Is It Dance?

With Christina Elliot (Head of Programming and Producing at The Place) Jo Fong(dance artist), Lyndsey Wilson (Manager of Lancashire’s rural and library touring network Spot On) and Professor Stephanie Pitts (Director of Sheffield Performer and Research Centre at Sheffield University)

RTDI has been inviting audiences to experience dance in new ways for ten years. In this, the first episode of the series, we explore how we talk to audiences about something which is initially unfamiliar, and what we have learnt about overcoming barriers of language and perception, sharing some of the beautiful and extraordinary encounters artists and audiences have experienced along the way.

Episode 2: The Artist as Guest: Your Place or Mine?

With Beccy Lloyd (RTDI/Eloquent Productions), Sonia Sabri MBE (Sonia Sabri Co and RTDI partner from 2022-2026), Solène Weinachter (solo artist) and Ben Duke (Artistic Director, Lost Dog Dance)

In rural touring dance artists and their companies are invited to perform in unconventional spaces without the convenience and technical capacity of a traditional theatre tour. What challenges and benefits are there for the artist in this different way of working?

Episode 3: A Good Night Out

With Courtney Beadle (RTDI Producer, The Place), Luca Silvestrini (Artistic Director, Protein Dance), Helen McIntosh (Creative Producer) and Natalie Kidman (Director, Black Country Touring)

Rural touring is not just a way of presenting dance but a way of bringing people together. Episode 3 of the series explores how artists, producers and promoters have shaped performances into social occasions. We’ll ask what makes a good night out in a rural context, how do dance events sit within community life, and what does the wider sector have to learn from this?

Episode 4: Curation in the Community

With Kate Lynch (Manager, Highlights Rural Touring, RTDI Partner 2022-2026 and herself a volunteer promoter), Amanda Drago (volunteer promoter at Gilsland Village Hall, and dance professional leading Greencroft Arts) and Claire Smith (Manager, Vicars Cross Community Centre and RTDI Project Manager from 2015-2021)

The structure of rural touring across the country varies but the role of the venue promoter, often a volunteer in their own community, is undoubtedly crucial to a successful event. Episode four in the series goes hyper-local and examines the role of this lynchpin, the venue promoter as curator, connector and cultural advocate.

Episode 5: Audience Development

With Christina Elliot (Head of Programming and Producing at The Place), Emma-Jane Benning (Artistic Director, Strike A Light, an RTDI Associate Venue), Ed Collier (Co-Artistic Director, China Plate and co-founder of RTDI in 2015) and Beccy Lloyd (RTDI Co-ordinator for the South-West region from 2022-2026)

Delving into how approaches to audience development that have been practised for many years in rural touring are gaining currency in other contexts. Asking what the ingredients to successful audience development are and how are they being employed across the sector.

Episode 6: Closing Thoughts

With Beccy Lloyd (RTDI/Eloquent Productions), Alison Lord (Dance Director, Take Art), Eddie Nixon (Artistic Director, The Place) and Abigail Reeve (Director, National Rural Touring Forum).

Three of the lead partners of RTDI reflect on ten years of rural touring dance, the partnerships and networks that have grown around it, its impact on the dance touring ecology, audience development for dance and the work dance artists are making: what does it all mean for the future.