About Step
Step is an international dance festival for young audiences in West Sweden. The festival is a biennial and was launched in March 2020. The second edition of the festival took place in March 2022 and the third edition of the festival took place in Västra Götaland and Halland between March 6-9, 2024!
For the three editions of the festival that has been carried out, the festival program has been selected in collaboration with our national and international curators Fiona Ferguson – creative development director at Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, Adjjima Na Patalung – Festival Director of BICT Fest in Bangkok, Gerhard Verfaillie – Artistic Director of the Krokus Festival in Belgium and Peter Sunesson – formerly Producer for Salto! at Dansstationen in Malmö. In addition to this, the festival also works with Step Extended which is an initiative to showcase both dance companies and innovative dance projects for young audiences in West Sweden. The festival also contains a professional’s program for practitioners, organizations and anyone working with or for dance for young audiences.
Step has presented performances by Aaben Dans (DK), Akram Khan Company (UK), Big Wind (SE), Danskompaniet Spinn (SE), Embla dans & teater (SE), Freestyle Phanatix (SE), Jordi L.Vidal Company (BE), Kompani Catapult (SE), Lambert & Lindström (SE), Memory Wax (SE), MYKA (DK/SE), Scottish Theatre Producers (UK), Stopgap Dance Company (UK), SUPERFAN (UK), Tony Tran (NO), tout petit (BE), Twisted Feet (SE) and Un Poyo Rojo (AR).
Step is a collaboration with various municipalities in West Sweden. For the previous editions of the festival, children, youth, and adults from the municipalities Ale, Borås, Göteborg, Härryda, Kungsbacka, Lerum, Uddevalla and Vänersborg got the opportunity to experience performances, talks, mingles, and workshops.
Step is initiated and run by Producentbyrån.
Gabrielle Haga
Gabrielle Haga has since 2016 worked as a Senior Advisor at Scenekunstbruket, a national organization dedicated to providing professional performing arts for children and youth. Scenekunstbruket organizes the annual Showbox festival, Norway’s largest performing arts festival for young audiences, and is a major contributor to The Cultural Schoolbag. In her role, Haga focuses on artistic development, cultural policy, and international projects aimed at strengthening the performing arts sector in Norway and abroad. She holds a master’s degree in Theatre Science from the University of Oslo, along with degrees in Nordic languages and literature, as well as Performing Arts from the University of Agder. Scenekunstbruket is deeply connected to the dance field for young audiences in Norway, providing art funding, professional programs for dancers and choreographers, through collaborations with dance organizations, and the extensive repertoire of performances for the young audiences.
Annika Ostwald
Annika is Head of Operations and Artistic Director of Rum för Dans in Region Halland since 2022. She has over a decade long international experience as Dance Producer and Project Manager, with educations in both Hong Kong and London. Annika has toured with companies to some of the world’s leading venues, such as Den Norska Operan, Theâtre National de Chaillot i Paris and The Harbourfront Center in Toronto. She has collaborated with renowned choreographers like Alan Lucien Øyen and his company winter guests. Since 2018, she is based in Sweden, also working as a Mentor, Senior Advisor and Producer, among other things with productions for young audiences.
Fiona Ferguson
Fiona is a trained flautist graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2001. Since then jobs in music, theatre, arts education and curation have led to a focus on theatre and dance for children and young. Fiona joined Imaginate as Creative Development Director in 2011 which includes initiating artist development programmes, developing national and international opportunities, and leading projects with artists, teachers and children.
Step Extended
Step Extended is our initiative to showcase both dance companies and innovative dance projects from West Sweden. It is also an addition to the festival’s curated program. Beyond showcasing regional dance initiatives, and through for instance international exchange and residencies, we also want to develop collaborations and strengthen regrowth in dance for young audiences regionally and nationally.
Step’s Dance Club
Step’s Dance Club is a free-of-charge competence development program for teachers in preschool, elementary school, special school, and high school that took place during spring 2023. The aim of the project is to strengthen the ties between teachers, dance artists and presenters in order to promote children’s self-evident access to culture. Through five physical gatherings from February to June 2023, a shared platform to meet around dance for young audiences was created. We have taken inspiration from Edinburgh based dance and theatre festival Imaginate’s initiative Teachers Theatre Club and Backa Teater’s course Lärare ser på scenkonst. The program also consisted of a visit to Edinburgh and Imaginate.
Step’s Dance Club is about inspiring teachers to see more dance for young audiences, to find a common language to discuss performing arts experiences with young audiences and to jointly develop and test one’s critical thinking. What is it that makes a performance interesting and relevant?
Step’s Dance Club 2023 was carried out with funding from the Swedish Arts Council.
Environmental Policy
We are now taking a new step in reducing the festival’s climate footprint! We are focusing on creating a festival that is sustainable both regarding environmental and climate issues. We have identified four main areas that we are working with. In the areas food and beverage, travels, accommodation and printed matter, our ambition is to:
– Serve only vegetarian food and snacks at the festival’s opening, professionals program and closing party.
Serve only organic coffee/tea, sugar and milk.
– When possible, collaborate with local food and beverage producers for the various events during the festival.
– Make sure all travels within the Nordics are done by train or bus.
– When possible, book Nordic Swan Ecolabel or Green Key certified hotels for the visiting companies and guests.
– Reduce the number of printed matter. And what’s printed will be so on Nordic Swan Ecolabel certified paper.
Producentbyrån
Producentbyrån in Gothenburg is the initiator and producer of Step. Producentbyrån is a team of producers and project managers working with various artists, companies, festivals, conferences and projects in performing arts, both in Sweden and internationally. Producentbyrån was founded in 2008 and work with tour management, communication, project management, coordination, production, administration and economy. We work with both short and long-term projects and hire additional producers and project managers when needed. Producentbyrån is run by Malin Enberg, Dag Rosenqvist and Hanko Zell.