Thanks from Step!

A big thanks to everyone who participated during the festival! Big thanks also to our collaborators, presenters and all our funders for your continued belief in what we do, and for wanting to do this together with us. Las but not least – a huge thanks to the audiences who took part of the performances and talks during Step 2026!

The fourth edition of Step took place from March 4-12 2026. All in all, 58 events at 19 locations in eight municipalities in Region Västra Götaland and Halland were presented. Audiences in Ale, Göteborg, Härryda, Lerum, Mölndal, Stenungsund, Vara and Varberg got the opportunity to experience performances from Scotland, Norway and Sweden.

The selection for Step 2026 was done by our curators Gabrielle Haga – Senior Advisor at Scenekunstbruket in Norway, Annika Ostwald – Head of Operations and Artistic Director for Rum för Dans in Region Halland and Fiona Ferguson – Creative Development Director at Edinburgh International Children’s Festival in Edinburgh. Producentbyrån were responsible for bringing in local, regional, and national performances and events to the program.

Our international professional’s program gathered 55 delegates and participants from Scotland, Serbia, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. During three days – March 4–6 – industry professionals gathered at Vara Konserthus, Mölnlycke kulturhus and Folkteatern in Gothenburg to experience performances, network, mingle and listen to talks about bicycle tours, the conditions for creating dance for young audiences in the Nordic countries, what resources we have at hand and what we need to create dance performances, an initiative for a new national distribution system for performing arts for young audiences and what the process of creating a performance for children with complex need might look like. In collaboration with Dansakademin, as a bridge from their initiative Open Stage, three West Swedish dance artists and companies presented their respective artistic practises.

Step 2026 was inaugurated at Vara Konserthus with speeches by Simon Ljungman – Artistic Development Director at Vara Konserthus, Carl Forsberg – First Vice Chair of the Regional Cultural Committee of Västra Götaland and by Step’s Project Manager Hanko Zell. The opening also featured a flash mob with students from the culture schools of Vara and Partille lead by choreographer and dancer Maja Fock.

So once again – a massive thanks for Step 2026!