About Dansens Hus

The Dansens Hus strategy for 2019–2022 contains the following main points:

Vision
Moving art. Moving people.

Core values
Respect, generosity and relevance.

Purpose
Dansens Hus is Norway’s national dance stage. A place to experience, develop and talk about dance art. We are there for audiences, dance artists and for art itself.

Dansens Hus aims to strengthen dance as an art form and increase dance audiences in Norway. We stage high-quality Norwegian and international dance art, develop artistry, disseminate dance to the whole country and work to increase knowledge about dance as an art form.

We do all this because art is essential. Art both enriches and challenges individuals. It plays a fundamental role in democracy and is a vehicle of freedom of expression. Dance art is expression through movement with a distinctively physical, visual and emotional power – a global language that can build bridges between cultures and bring people together.

Core areas and main goals
The strategy is made up of four core areas, each with its own main goal:

- Art.
Dansens Hus shall be an artistic spearhead. We shall stage relevant, moving art that reflects a diversity of voices and expressions. We shall bring Norwegian dance art forward by contributing to the public discussion about dance art by supporting artists at every stage of their career.

- Audiences.
Dance art shall enrich and challenge more people, both new and established audience groups. Experiences at Dansens Hus shall leave an impression on an audience that reflects the population of Norway.

- Arena.
Dansens Hus shall be an open and future-oriented hothouse for artists and audiences, an arena for new ideas in which we challenge the way we understand and experience art.

- Organisation.
In order to be the spearhead and hothouse that we want to be, we must have a competent, effective and sustainable organisation with high levels of well-being and commitment, in which everyone works towards common goals.

The complete strategy contains sub-goals and actions within each core area. These have not been included here.

Focus areas
The strategy articulates four focus areas relating to challenges and responsibilities in the interface between the institution of art and society. Focus areas in the strategy are dissemination, diversity, sustainability and smart technology.

For generelle henvendelser, eller om du ikke vet hvem du skal kontakte, send en e–post til
info@dansenshus.com
så tar vi kontakt med deg.

Adressen vår er:
Dansens Hus
Vulkan 1
0182 Oslo

Tlf. +47 23 70 94 00 (man. - fre. 09.00 - 15.00)

Dansens Hus is committed to building a more inclusive cultural life, an inclusive dance arena, inclusive performance arts, and to how we as an institution can work to improve diversity and inclusion – on, behind and in front of the stage. Here are some of our thoughts on this, and specific examples of what we are doing about it.

All of us have the right to be moved by art and to move. Dance performers are diverse, and dance has a place in the hearts of a diverse audience. That is why we are working to improve diversity and representation on the stage, behind the scenes and in our organisation. We are committed to having excellent structures, processes, methods and cultures that are centred around dance, create opportunities, and inspire and encourage solidarity.

Diversity can mean many different things. Our main aims are to have diversity in age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, function, background and skin colour. We have selected some work areas in which we focus on cooperation with and representation of communities, addressing gender identities, melanin-rich (visible) minorities, ethnic and cultural minorities and people from refugee and migration backgrounds, indigenous peoples and national minorities and people with functional variation.

Our main thinking is that inclusion work does not happen through special measures, but through making continuous work a key part of our day-to-day operations and organisational culture. Inclusion work happens through cooperation and real inclusion in the theatre’s programme and programming. Our aim is to have a conscious approach to what it means to be an institution with power and resources. How do we exercise this power, which voices do we allow to be heard, and who participates in decision-making?

Cooperation is an important key. Dansens Hus works methodically to include diverse communities in the theatre and to develop projects together. The communities have influence and are involved from start to finish. This ensures representation and resonance, and helps to ensure mutual development and skills improvement. We learn an enormous amount from the various communities in this process. About inclusion, facilitation, communication, language, expression, aesthetics, body politics, normativity, non-discrimination and a great deal more. We find that for us as an organisation, this is a challenge that improves our skills. At the same time, we feel that we have a great deal to contribute to the various communities. As a performing arts institution, we have what is known as the “capital of acknowledgement”, and we find that this way of working helps to strengthen the communities through contracts of employment, awareness-raising, acknowledgement and giving them a platform. We also find that many people from the various youth communities continue in their artistic cycle, returning to our theatre, first as participants and members of the audience, and then as fully trained performance artists. This is inspiring, and helps to improve artistic diversity and expand the range of dance for both performers and audiences. Some examples of this type of cooperation include the Urban Moves festival, Choreography Laboratory, Vogue Ball, Measure your Crew, and much of the outreach programme and collaboration with the Tabanka dance company.

The artistic programme is a pillar of our work with diversity. The artistic profile of Dansens Hus is embodied in what we have chosen to call a “360 degree programme”. This involves an ambition to have a widely composite programme which is truly multi-voiced and has broad representation. When we say “multi-voiced”, we mean in terms of artistic expression and cultural background, with an emphasis on including artistic expressions originating outside the so-called “Western canon”, or which are non-normative and/or under-represented. We are committed to helping body representations and body politics find their own place on the stage, rather than being displayed by others. The productions in our programme highlight experiences and themes relating to matters such as gender identity, racism and functional variations. As well as having a contextualising programme in the form of workshops, discussions, written communication and talks, we want to be a platform that helps marginalised voices to have their own representation and share their perspectives. Some of the artists we work with are artivists (they work with activism and rights, using art as their method). They are clear political voices that describe where they are coming from, what they need, the injustice they encounter and the shameful experiences they want to bring an end to, such as racism, hate speech and marginalisation. Listening to other people’s experiences, anger and pain, and sharing their victories and satisfaction may be one of the most important things we can do – as an institution, as an audience and as people.

Through activities and community experiences, we want to include more people in our cultural life, both as members of the audience and as future culture professionals. We will soon be embarking on a collaboration with JM Music Norway to give young refugees professional cultural training (KulturIntro). We also work with Rommen Scene in Groruddalen, where we will put on dance productions for children and young people and offer a range of activities. Other events are Measure Your Crew (dance competition for young people), family open days, and more.

Working with real diversity takes time and requires skill. We want to be more diverse as an organisation. An important step that we have taken is to increase representation on the board and Artistic Council, by appointing two people who are highly skilled in working with marginalised groups and audience development in combination with their arts-based skills and activities. This is helping to improve diversity skills internally, provide criticism and an opportunity for organisational change. We have also found that it is helping to make us more credible and facilitates contact with the communities that we work with.

We have a genuine desire to be a theatre where everyone feels that they are welcome. We want to break down the visible and invisible barriers that prevent people from entering a cultural institution like Dansens Hus. We have found that increasingly, audiences are spanning a wider range in terms of age, gender and socio-cultural background – but we still have a long way to go. We would like to hear from you if you would like to share your thoughts, praise or tips regarding your experience as a member of the audience.

“Discrimination and racism are democratic challenges that hinder opportunities for many people to participate in and offer their skills to society. Racism and discrimination create fear and are detrimental to the trust needed to safeguard and develop positive, inclusive communities.”
(Quote from the Norwegian Government’s Action Plan against Racism and Discrimination on the Grounds of Ethnicity and Religion 2020–2023).

At Dansens Hus, we have zero tolerance to discrimination of any kind, be it against ethnic origin, skin colour, gender, sexual preference, religion, function or anything else.

The incidents of recent years and focus on #Me Too and Black Lives Matter have made us more aware that we must work more directly and specifically on problems relating to discrimination and inclusion. For several years now, we have had a special clause in our contracts with our partners, stating that we have zero tolerance to discrimination. We are now working to develop an action plan against discrimination and racism that will make us better able to act if any performers, colleagues or members of the audience are subject to discriminatory or racist episodes. It will be an instrument that enables us to prevent, deal with and follow up on incidents.

If you as an artist or member of the audience experience discrimination or racism at Dansens Hus, we want you to contact us. The person for members of the public to contact is Managing Director Sunniva Steine (sunniva@dansenshus.com/+47 41318232). The person for artists to contact is Planning and Production Manager Kristin Skiftun (Kristin@dansenshus.com/ +47 926 99 462) or Artistic Director Samme Raeymaekers (samme@dansenshus.com). You can also contact our Diversity Developer Thomas Prestø (Thomas@dansenshus.com/ + 47 938 08 369). Every enquiry is handled in accordance with data protection rules and we observe confidentiality. It must feel safe to report any experience of racism and discrimination, and the organisation must treat any reports very seriously.

Art is expression. Freedom of expression is a fundamental building block in a democratic society. As a society, we need art that challenges established truths, that turns our world view upside down. Art that experiments, and that we may not understand immediately. We need artists that see, comment, challenge and provoke. This is how we move art and society forward. Artists must be able to do this without the fear of being met by hate speech or discrimination. We want to be an ally for artists who experience harassment or hate speech in the public sphere. Please contact our Managing Director or Artistic Director if you have a problem that you would like to bring up or discuss.