The environmental crisis and the pandemic have deeply shaken our realities and have provided dance professionals overall with a unique, yet challenging, opportunity to reflect on current and future challenges, by re-examining audience engagement, sustainability and mobility paradigm in performing arts.

Rail2Dance brings together 4 established dance organizations in Europe, Städtische Theater Chemnitz – Ballett Chemnitz in Germany, Tampere Dance Theatre in Finland, Plesni Teater Ljubljana in Slovenia and Norrlandsoperan in Sweden to develop dance and performing art within trains, stations and places of mobility.

Rail2Dance aims to revitalize these places with dance, to engage large-scale and new audiences, but also to train European dance professionals to develop new skills in audience development, performing in public spaces and sustainable mobility, in order to encourage the European dance scene to shift towards carbon-less solutions.

Rail2Dance has 3 main objectives aligned with the Creative Europe priorities :
1. Audience development / Develop and engage new audiences for dance across Europe, including those with less access to culture, through physical and virtual performances in places of transport and mobility
2. Sustainable mobility / Develop a mobility programme for dance artists using sustainable transports and VR technologies, to test new models for environment-friendly mobility
3. Capacity Building / Develop and share new methodologies and skills for the dance sector, to improve its professional development and opportunities A core team of 5 artists selected from Germany, Finland, UK, Slovenia and Sweden will join this 2-year project and be joined by local communities of artists in the activities, which include: A mentored residency in Slovenia A 3-month local action research A VR experience development Rail2Dance on tour, the core mobility phase of the project in Germany, Finland, Slovenia and Sweden A virtual/physical conference in Germany and a final toolkit.