Stages
Networking project
Stages gathers twelve dance artists from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands to collaborate artistically and create three dance performances. The project will allow a meeting between North Atlantic dance artists facing similar challenges and geographic barriers to connect and build colleagueship through working in the dance studio in Reykjavík.
Stages is a project that gathers twelve dance artists from Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands to collaborate artistically and create three choreographic works. The project will allow a meeting between North Atlantic dance artists facing similar challenges and geographic barriers to connect and build colleagueship through working in the dance studio.
From the 3rd to the 28th of August 2026, at Dansverkstæðið in Reykjavík, the artists will be exploring what North Atlantic dance art can be. By the end, the three 20-minute choreographic works will be shared with the local community at Dansverkstæðið. Additionally, during the project period, all warm-up classes will be open to the local dance professionals, and further public events will be hosted to build bridges between the borders of the North Atlantic dance community.
The aim of Stages is that the participants will get to know one another through working in the dance studio. One choreographer from each country will get to work on a choreographic idea with a group of dancers from all three countries over the duration of one month. The creative process will focus on developing the craft of dance. Each piece will receive a small budget to spend on music, costumes, lights, or props.
Why
The individual dance scenes of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands have particular resources and structures to work within, yet there are common obstacles. The network organises one larger project a year, and the basis of the project is to support the needs of the hosting country. The Icelandic dance scene is well established. There is an increasing number of dance professionals; however, a gap in work opportunities has emerged between graduating dancers and established professionals.
As a network, we have managed to establish connections between artists, and we want to ground those connections into long-term collaborations. Our network meetings in Tórshavn in 2024 and Nuuk in 2025 have been between 3-12 days, and the participating artists and members of our network have voiced the need for support to tie longer-term collaboration. A longer working period would enable a deeper and more sustainable colleagueship. Stages would allow dance artists facing similar challenges to connect through meetings in the dance studio and share knowledge embedded in the body. This project is an important step for the network to facilitate a meeting point for a community of colleagues to emerge and confront the isolation when working in the North Atlantic region.
We, the network, envision that the three choreographic works would be developed individually into full evening performances or as short pieces into a triple bill that then, in the future, could tour in the North Atlantic region.
Schedule
3rd - 28th of August: Rehearsals and research during weekdays.
The rehearsals will be in Studio 1 and 2 at Dansverkstæðið, the main workspace for dance in Reykjavik, Iceland. The dancers will be divided into the following working groups: A (Group piece with everyone), B (6 people), and C (3 people).
The daily schedule will be as follows:
9-10 Warm-up class (open and free for all dancers in Reykjavik)
10:30 - 13 Rehearsals for piece A
13-14 Lunch
14-16:30 Rehearsals for piece B/C
4th, 6th, 11th, 13th, 18th, 20th of August: Public event will be hosted in the evening at Dansverkstæðið and at the Nordic House in Iceland. This will consist of a range of networking activities such as: roundtables, artist talks, screenings of stage work, dance films, improv jams, presentations, and more.
28th of August: Public sharing of the three pieces at Dansverkstæðið.
Production timeline
Preparation
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Spring 2025: Writing project (Completed)
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Spring 2025: Confirming collaborators (Completed)
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Summer/Autumn 2025: Applications for funding (In-progress)
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December 2025: Open Call Choreographers
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January 2026: Open Call Dancers
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April 2026: Project planning
Project implementation
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August 2026
Postproduction
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September 2025 (organisers only / online)
Participation
There will be an Open Call for participation for both dancers and choreographers:
3 Choreographers
1 ÍS / 1 FO / 1 GL
9 Dancers
During our research trip to Iceland there was a wish for the opportunity to get an opportunity. Meaning that they were missing open-calls, audicians etc. Therefore, we will be having an open call for participation, that will go out through our social media platforms as well as NuQi Dance in Greenland, Dansverkstæðið in Iceland and RIVA in the Faroe Islands.
Sóley Ólafsdóttir
Sóley Ólafsdóttir is an Icelandic dance artist with a BA in Contemporary Dance Practices from IUA. Since graduating, she has been actively collaborating with other artists, creating her own works, and choreographing for ensembles. She has performed in works by creators such as Noora Hannula, María Ellingsen, and Rósa Ómarsdóttir. Sóley creates work both individually and under the name of BunnyVerse Company, which she co-runs with Leevi Mettinen, focusing on performances for children. In her practice, she is interested in the nervous system as a socio-choreographic expression, exploring how our psychophysical being experiences itself as a composition or pattern of mind in relation to both social and natural environments. She is a recent recipient of the DanceWEB Scholarship within the framework of ImPulsTanz, under the guidance of Raja Feather Kelly.
9 dancerrs
´Love Letter to New Mutations´ is a choreographic project exploring how human behaviour and physicality navigate emotional landscapes shaped by social and dystopian environments. The project draws on themes of mutation and perception, inspired by Dark Ecology and the transformation of perceptive expression (Phenomenology of the End).
These ideas inform the compositional approach, generating patterns that emerge, mutate, and interact. The process combines fantasy-driven improvisation and character-based exploration, using imaginative scenarios and reflections to develop qualities for both the movement material and the states of being within it. These qualities are then shaped into evolving choreographic structures through repetition and mutation. Because the work involves structured systems, it is helpful for dancers to enjoy working with complex counting, detailed movement, and evolving patterns.
Sarah Aviaja Hammeken
Sarah Aviaja Hammeken is an award-winning choreographer with Danish and Kalaallit roots. Drawing from her Inuit heritage, her practice explores the relationship between body, emotion, and society through sustained movement research. She founded AVIAJA Dance in 2019 and has since presented work internationally, including SILA, SOIL, Speech/less, and WHITEOUT.
6 dancerrs
For this new work, I am seeking dancers eager to engage in a creative process with curiosity, creativity, openness, and a willingness to experiment.
The piece will emerge through movement research, incorporating emotional exploration and physical contact. It is a physically demanding and dynamic practice, requiring strength, stamina, body awareness, and attunement to the group and its emotional nuances.
Collaboration lies at the heart of my process. I value diversity and honor each dancer’s movement history and unique interpretations. The studio will be a safe and supportive space, fostering open communication, dialogue, and trust, where both the work and the dancers can fully unfold.
Búi Rouch
Búi Rouch is a dance and theatre artist. He is based in the Faroe Islands and works as a performer, creator and educator. He trained as an actor and performance maker in London and Copenhagen before taking his contemporary dance degree in Munich, Germany. After 8 years in Germany, working within the free scene and state theatres, he relocated to the Faroes and has since then joined forces with dance colleagues from the company RIVA to build-up the Faroese contemporary dance scene, while also continuing work within theatre. His physical and creative practice is informed by techniques and experience with contact improvisation, viewpoints technique, floorwork, release technique and ensemble based work.
3 dancerrs
For Stages, I intend to start a creative process which carries the working title: Ode to genetic mess - a three body problem.
In this work, I would like to examine my choreographic interest in the body as a vessel that carries both individual and transgenerational memories and knowledge. While not using literal narrative nor working through an autobiographical lense, the idea takes inspiration from a personal fractured and tangled family history that goes back three generations.
We will also explore the so-called three body problem from classical mechanics, where three gravitational bodies in space result in incredibly complex and unpredictable orbital patterns. As a dancer, you will enter a process which is collaborative and where there is space for your agency. As individuals, pairs and a trio, we will experiment with composition tasks, fixed material, permutations, partnering and possibly also text.
Organisers
Alexander Montgomery
Vár B. Árting
Yelena Arakelow
Collaborators
Dansverkstæðið
The Nordic House in Iceland
FÍLD (Dance Union Iceland)
Performing Arts Iceland
NuQi Dance
RIVA the Faroese Dance Company
