New international collaboration: Shifting the stage

Shifting the Stage is a collaboration between four international festivals – bibu Festival in Sweden (main partner), Showbox Festival/ Scenekunstbruket in Norway, Bravo! Festival in Finland and Edinburgh International Children's Festival/Imaginate in Scotland.

In this collaboration, we want to be a professional development arena for artists with functional variations, deaf/hearing impaired and/or neurodivergent artists who work with performing arts for children and young people. Through Shifting the Stage , the partners will work purposefully to develop knowledge about how art can reflect the diversity of experiences, identities and bodies – and how art for children and young people can be shaped by artists with different functions. The project will also contribute to the field not only focusing on accessible performances for audiences with functional variations, but actively promoting performances created by artists with functional variations.

Five days of artist lab in January

This January, a five-day Shifting the Stage Lab will take place in Glasgow, where eight invited artists, two from each partner country, will work together. The lab aims to support the development of new production ideas led by artists with functional disabilities and stimulate new collaborations and expressions.

Aino Hakala and Jean Baptiste

Actor Aino Hakala and dancer Jean-Babtiste Baele are participating from Norway.

Aino is a sign language actress, and is associated with Teater Manu in Oslo. She has, among other things, played in the performance Capiche?! , which was a co-production between Unge Viken Teater and Teater Manu for children from 10 years and up. The performance played on Showbox in 2024.

Jean-Babtiste is a dance artist and choreographer based in Kristiansand, Norway, where he is actively involved in developing the hip-hop and contemporary dance community. He has collaborated with Mia Habib and 71BODIES/Daniel Mariblanca, among others, and holds a bachelor's degree in dance from London.

The lab will be jointly led by Ellen Renton and Luke Pell .

Ellen is a poet, performer and performing artist, and is currently working on a musical theatre performance for children entitled PALS , which prioritizes blind and visually impaired audiences. Ellen is developing PALS in collaboration with Imaginate as part of an Unlimited Partner Award .

Luke is a dance artist with many years of experience in holding space in his artistic work, including as a dramaturg, artistic associate, host, facilitator, writer and researcher.

Both have previously participated in the EU project PUSH+ , a Creative Europe collaboration project, in which we were a partner. Scenekunstbruket led the lab Different Bodies where Ellen was a member as an artist from Scotland.

Participating artists are:

Emilia Wärff and Narjes Nárcisz Al-Ansari (Sweden)
Aino Hakala and Jean-Baptiste Baele (Norway)
Maima Tani and Satu Tani (Finland)
Ivor MacAskill and Ramesh Meyyappan (Scotland)

The lab is supported by the Nordic Culture Fund and marks an important step in strengthening international networks and professional arenas related to performing arts for young audiences with a particular focus on inclusion, representation and artistic diversity. Teater Manu has contributed support to the lab in January.