A new initiative was launched last year to encourage more contemporary dance companies to visit village halls and community venues around the country.
These dance shows will be promoted in partnership with Carn to Cove the local rural touring scheme that provides high quality professional performances in Village Halls and community spaces throughout the year.
This Autumn the first shows to be selected for the Rural Touring Dance Initiative are set to tour including Panta Rei Danseteater, Protein and Lost Dog Dance in October, Lila Dance in November and Joan Cleville Dance in February next year.
Panta Rei’s I Wish Her Well, an intricate performance, combining storytelling, high tempo energy and an evocative sound score by British composer Nathaniel Reed. Act one is based on the stories of four women who are closely related to the dancers, whilst act two is based on the diaries of a 16 year old girl. She is now an 82 year old woman who generously shared her thoughts and experiences with the choreographers and dancers.
Luca Silverstrini’s Protein’s May Contain Food (May Contain You), a witty duet that explores our relationship with food, inspired by social occasions and mealtimes. Audiences will be invited to bring local specialities and dished to share to each show.
Lost Dog’s Paradise Lost (lies open beside me), an award-winning performance inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost – told through words, music and the easily misunderstood medium of dance. A show for anyone who has ever created anything (a child, a garden, a paper aeroplane) and then had to watch that wonderful thing spiral out of control. Each show will be accompanied by discussions on creation, poetry and parenthood
Joan Clevillé Dance Plan B for Utopia, which uses dance, humour and storytelling to explore the notion of utopia and the role that imagination can play as a driving force for change in our personal and collective lives.
Lila Dance’s Deluge, which sees four people arrive in the safehouse. With only the clothes on their backs, they find themselves asking what had been lost, and what was there left to lose? In this intimate and immersive dance experience four lives are given an emotional counterpoint by a supporting community cast, an evocative soundtrack, fearless physicality, and new writing.]
The selected companies represent a variety of styles, and each show has either been designed for performance in village halls, or specially adapted from existing repertoire by the company.
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.
