A Nordic spring 

An important part of Scenekunstbruket's work is to strengthen the professional performing arts field for a young audience, and work in our international network contributes to the further development of the field. Among other things, we have participated in two different projects supported by the Nordic Culture Fund and Nordic Culture Contact, last year Portable Sharing and this year Shifting the stage . In addition to the more concrete projects, it is important for us to stay informed about what is happening in the field in our neighboring countries and to elevate Norwegian artistry into a Nordic context. And we naturally use the opportunity to consider performances for Showbox. This spring we have visited the Step festival in Gothenburg, the Bravo! festival in Helsinki, SWOP in Roskilde and Bibu in Helsingborg. 

Bravo! in Finland 

The Bravo festival is organized every two years by Assitej Finland, which is also a partner in the Shifting the stage project. On our trip to Helsinki, we met and heard from a number of Finnish performing artists who work with children and young people at a pitch event. It is interesting to see how the infrastructure in the Nordic countries is quite different. Several of the performances during Bravo! were shown in the districts of Helsinki that have larger cultural centers, in addition to stages in the nearby cities. We saw Finnish and international performances, including Shapeshifter for the youngest children, by and with the Estonian-Palestinian dance artist Helena Krinal, who also talked about the work she does with dance in Palestine. A small highlight was the work show of Soft Seam by the Finnish artists Satu Tani and Maima Tani, who both participated in Shifting the stage's artist lab in Glasgow in January. 

The Step dance festival in Gothenburg 

The Step festival is a biennial that was held for the fourth time in 2026. The festival shows dance for a young audience and is a collaboration with municipalities and organizers in West Sweden. Both performances and professional programs are organized at cultural centers around the region, this year at Atalante, Mölnlycke Cultural Center, Vara Concert Hall and Kulturhuset Bergsjön. Step had several Norwegian performances on the program; Fritt fram by KompaniTO, Rock me baby by Karstein Solli/Øystein Elle, Bare rør by Panta Rei Danseteater/Unge Viken Teater and Love Tenderly by Tony Tran. The Performing Arts Agency's senior advisor Gabrielle Haga sits on the program board for Step 2026-2028. A solid professional program, where we were presented with the status of Kulturkånken, Assitej Sverige's initiative for a Swedish version of DKS, and Scenekunstbruket presented the infrastructure for dance for the young audience in Norway. 

SWOP in Denmark 

SWOP is a biennial organized by Aaben dans in Roskilde. The opening performance was the Norwegian Rock me baby by Øystein Elle/Capto Musicae and Karstein Solli Produksjoner. Otherwise, this year's festival offered outdoor performances, stage productions and projects in other rooms in the area, rounding out Aaben dans's stage in the Musicon district. We also had the pleasure of participating in an interesting day seminar on the theme of Invitation and hosting. The seminar had a brilliant keynote by the Danish author of the book Underskudd – verden av omsorg, Emma Holten, and workshops with the artists Alfredo Zinola and Micaela Kühn. Kühn was also an artist in our previous EU project PUSH . 

Bibu – Sweden's largest performing arts biennale 

Bibu took place at the end of May in Helsingborg. We invited our county network in DKS there for inspiration and professional input. A delegation of 13 people participated, from the network, Kulturtanken and Scenekunstbruket . In addition to a performance program, Bibu also has an extensive industry program with various lectures, courses and discussions. Assitej Sweden, which has long worked to achieve a national system for performing arts in schools (inspired by Scenekunstbruket and DKS), invited us, Aud Kristine Horseng from DKS Nordland and Tormod Gangfløt from DKS Østfold to talk about Scenekunstbruket and how DKS works regionally in the conversation from Från skolesekk to Kulturkånken . At Bibu we were also present with a group of artists from the Shifting the stage project, where we brought with us, among others, the Norwegian-Sami actor Kim-Runar Klodiussen. The group also consisted of artists from Scotland, Sweden and Finland who for four intensive days saw performances and a professional program with a focus on adapted performances and performing arts by artists with disabilities. 

Shifting the stage will continue this fall, including a residency in collaboration with DansiT. The work from the residency will be shown at the Showbox festival. We are also looking forward to continuing the Nordic collaboration with the other partners in the future.