Dance, Documents, Deadlines: A Case Study in International Touring

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Contemporary dance remains one of the least supported art forms in Romania. Infrastructure is scarce, touring opportunities are limited, and long-term funding is inconsistent. Despite this, independent artists continue to produce and present work—often by stepping into multiple roles: from creators and producers to technicians, fundraisers, and tour managers. This situation is not unique to Romania; across Eastern Europe, the absence of professional support teams remains a structural gap in the performing arts sector.

Ten years have gone by since Tangaj Collective was founded. In that time, we’ve learned how to write funding applications simply by doing them, got used to promoting ourselves because we had to, and took legal steps when we believed the system had failed us. At the same time, we slowly built a modest but meaningful network of artists and presenters who appreciate our work, support us, and challenge us to grow. We’ve approached every collaboration with care, treating it as a relationship—aware of its dynamics, its strengths, and its limits. 

Body Landscapes. An Ecofeminist Perspective is the most extensive mobility project we’ve undertaken so far, funded through Perform Europe. Over six weeks, we traveled by land to present BLOT – Body Line of Thought in nine countries, in partnership with Lokomotiva (Skopje, MK), Albania Dance Meeting (Tirana, AL), Students Cultural Centre (Novi Sad, RS), Croatian Cultural Centre | Port of Dance Festival (Rijeka, HR), En-Knap Productions | Spanski Borci (Ljubljana, SI), Fondazione Emilia Romagna Teatro |  Teatro Delle Passioni (Modena, IT), Klagenfurt Festival (AT), L1 Independent Artists Association | Trafo House (Budapest, HU), and the National Centre for Dance Bucharest (RO).

The show was accompanied by a screening featuring five dance films on ecofeminist themes created by artists from the Czech Republic, Finland, Canada and the UK and a series of tailor-made workshops led by choreographer Simona Deaconescu, assisted by performer and choreographer Simona Dabija. The project also featured an accessibility package including open captions for both BLOT and the dance films, translated in the local languages, as well as a dossier including a visual story of the show addressed to neurodiverse audiences

We’ve shaped this last public event of the tour as a practical case study to share how the project was developed and carried out. We’ll discuss how we matched with presenting partners, structured the tour from both logistical and financial perspectives, and organized responsibilities within the team. We’ll also reflect on how we transported and adapted the performance to diverse venues—with different technical setups and cultural contexts—and how we handled the legal and fiscal frameworks across countries while staying aligned with the funder’s requirements.