Second Menu of Dance Companies Announced for Rural Dance Touring Initiative

Second menu of dance treats from the Rural Dance Touring Initiative arrives at local venues this Autumn including the first show especially commissioned for village halls.

bgroup, Point Of Echoes 11 - 24 Sept

Hiccup, May-We-Go-Round 7 October

Uchenna, The Head Wrap Diaries 6 Oct - 25 Nov

James Wilton, Last Man Standing 7 - 21 Oct

Keira Martin, Here Comes Trouble 13 - 28 Oct

Just Us Dance Theatre, It's Between Us 19 Oct - 11 Nov

Lost Dog, Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) 1- 2 Dec

Setting their sights on village halls and other small rural venues across the UK often unreached by touring theatre and especially dance, this Autumn six dance companies will tour to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Cumbria, Shropshire and Hereford, Suffolk, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands. It's all supported by the National Rural Touring Forum's (NRTF) three-year dance focused scheme, which served up its first 'menu' of work to regional touring schemes in 2016.

Point of Echoes by bgroup is the first new work commissioned by the Rural Touring Dance Initiative, especially for the rural touring circuit. Set on an unnamed lighthouse, at an unknown time, somewhere on the coast of England, Point of Echoes is created by renowned UK choreographer Ben Wright and musician and writer Stuart Warwick.

Brighton-based dance theatre duo The Hiccup Project bring its multi-award winning May-We-Go-Round to Cornwall, an honest, funny and provocative ride on the merry-go-round of romance, taking audiences along for the bittersweet ride.

Uchenna's The Head Wrap Diaries is an immersive-interactive dance theatre production that uses comedy to explore, women, beauty, hair and culture. Using choreographer Vicki Igbokwe's signatory blend of club styles House, Waacking and Vogue fused with African and Contemporary dance, The Head Wrap Diaries will criss-cross the country from Cumbria to the South East.

Drawing on Terry Pratchett's novel "The Last Hero", James Wilton Dance's Last Man Standing is a dance work driven by energy and athleticism, deriving its choreography from martial arts, break dancing and capoeira. With a soundtrack of heavy rock, ambient music and textured soundscapes, Last Man Standing is poised to leave Dorset and Wiltshire audiences breathless.

Choreographed by Keira Martin and directed by Charlotte Vincent, Here Comes Trouble draws on social and cultural influences from Yorkshire, Ireland and Jamaica, rhythmically weaving together traditional music, authentic song and moving, gutsy Irish and Contemporary dance. Heading to the East Ridings of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cornwall, Martin will share hard hitting and heart-warming chapters of her life, revealing her heritage, her strength and her vulnerability.

And touring once more following previous successful rural tours is Lost Dog's Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) which won the Most Innovative/Inspirational Show at the inaugural Ticketsource National Rural Touring Forum Awards in June.

Speaking about the tours, Claire Smith, Project Manager of the Rural Touring Dance Initiative said "We are delighted with the response to performances that have happened with the First Menu companies - companies and audiences seemed thrilled at the unique opportunity this project is offering. We are particularly excited about having our newly commissioned piece previewing in this autumn season."

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. These shows are the first to tour as part of the initiative, with companies chosen from hundreds of applications in response to a call out issued at last year's launch.

@rural_dance | #ruraldance | www.ruraltouring.org

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