1000-words-ES-2014

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With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union  
1000 words about the mobility of contemporary dance in ESTONIA 
1. FESTIVALS 
Estonian Contemporary Dance Platform UUS TANTS – Biannual contemporary dance 
festival, will take place next time in 2015. The festival is a contemporary dance 
overview festival that presents the most interesting performances of Estonian dancers 
and choreographers selected by the jury that have premiered during the last two 
years. Organized by the Union of Estonian Dance Artists.  
http://www.tantsuliit.ee/new-dance   
August DanceFestival – Annual internationally acknowledged contemporary dance and 
theatre festival that contains works of choreographers mainly from Europe. It is 
organized by Kanuti Gildi SAAL and its artistic director is Priit Raud.  
http://www.tantsufestival.ee   
NoTaFe (Noore Tantsu Festival/ Young Dance Festival) – Takes place annually in 
Viljandi, South-Estonia. Contains international summer school, workshops, 
performances. Organized by Eve Studio. Artistic director: Eve Noormets. 
www.notafe.ee   
Festival HOMMIK – The catchwords of the dance festival HOMMIK are freshness and 
novelty, present-day reflections, daring experimenting, and approachability. The 
performances that the dance artists will be sharing with the audience react to today’s 
needs and present time and people’s minds. 
http://stu.ee/h2013/   
Hiiumaa Dance Festival – Dance festival for young audiences that takes place annually 
in Hiiumaa. Contains workshops, performances and film evenings.  
http://www.tants.org   
Koolitants (School Dance Festival), organised by the Estonian Dance Agency, is the 
most popular dance event for children and youth in Estonia, having the largest 
number of participants. Since its foundation in 1995, the creative dance festival is 
open to all styles and levels of dance. The goal of the School Dance Festival is to 
develop Estonian dance life as widely as possible, igniting interest towards dance in as 
many children and youth as possible and to encourage appreciation of dance art by 
the Estonian society through children and their parents.

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With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union  
Contemporary dance is frequently also in the programme other festivals: 
Baltoscandal – Most known international performing arts festival in Estonia started in 
1990. The festival is held biannually in June-July (next July 2008) and takes place in 
Rakvere, organized by Rakvere Theatre and Baltoscandal team. The main accent is on 
theatre, but the program contains contemporary dance pieces as well. 
www.baltoscandal.ee  
 
2.  VENUES 
Tallinn: 
Kanuti Gildi SAAL – the first production house that is devoted exclusively to the genre 
of contemporary dance in the Baltic countries. Presents and co-produces 
independently local and international productions. Established 2002. www.saal.ee 
Okasroosikese Castle – is a unique building in Tallinn where are artists’ studios and an 
open project based cultural room. The black hall of the castle is open for residencies 
and performances, concerts and exhibitions take place.  
http://stu.ee/okasroosikese-loss/   
Vaba Lava  - Vaba Lava will be opened in 2014. It wishes to become a venue for 
young, experimental and innovative performing arts and network with theatres with 
similar profiles abroad. 
www.vabalava.ee   
Von Krahl Theatre – a theatre house and company in Tallinn in which annual program 
is usually one or two contemporary dance pieces per year. Until 2002 Von Krahl 
Theatre was the main venue for independent dance. 
www.vonkrahl.com   
KUMU (Estonian Art Museum) auditorium – black-box theatre-auditorium used for 
dance performances.  
www.ekm.ee

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With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union  
Theatre NO99 – black-box theatre and a smaller chamber hall. Mostly for theatre 
pieces but a few contemporary pieces per year are performed.  
www.no99.ee  
Tartu: 
Sadamateater (Harbour theatre) – black box of the Vanemuine theatre. Used for their 
company productions and guest performances / festivals. Other venues of Vanemuine 
theatre are also used for dance productions.  
www.vanemuine.ee    
Genialistide klubi – small venue for independent artists presents also contemporary 
dance. www.genklubi.ee  
 
Tartu Uus Teater – a black-box theatre venue that holds a few dance performances 
per year. 
www.uusteater.ee  
Athena centre – two venues at the new art centre in the centre of Tartu. Sometimes 
holds also dance performances.  
www.athena.ee   
Viljandi: 
Black Box of the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy – used mainly for the 
student works, but also holds series of Contemporary Dance Scene, 1-2 times in  
month, organized by University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy and Eve Studio.  
Pärnu: 
Küün of Pärnu Endla Theatre - black box of the Endla theatre. Mostly holds theatre 
performances.  
www.endala.ee  
Rakvere:  
Rakvere theatre - big hall and small hall, mostly holds theatre performances and a 
few dance performances per year.  
www.rakvereteater.ee

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Pasteursvej 14, DK 1799 Copenhagen V, Denmark +45 33 88 80 01 www.kedja.net   
  
With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union  
Occationally contemporary dance performances are organized in the state theatres in 
Kuressaare and Culture centres of Haapsalu and Võru. 
 
3. AGENTS 
All venues produce themselves. Also independent artists very often produce or co-
produce their own work. 
Estonian Dance Agency / Tantsutuur is a contemporary dance series that kicked off in 
2010 with a mission to intertwine various forms of dance while keeping all doors open 
for other forms of art. The repertoire of Tantsutuur entails performances for children, 
youth and adults, who are interested in contemporary dance and theatre. Tantsutuur 
deems it important to promote contemporary dance also in the counties, outside the 
main cities of Estonia. 
Dance productions produced by Estonian Dance Agency for Tantsutuur brings together 
accomplished dance artists as coaches and young dance artists who are about to start 
their journey on the field of dance.  
www.tantsuagentuur.ee    
 
4. REHEARSAL SPACES 
The most used rehearsal space is Kanuti Gildi SAAL’s rehearsal studio, Estonian Dance 
Agency´s studios and Okasroosikese castle. Also studios of the universities dance 
departments and private dance schools are used. 
There is a need for rehearsal spaces in Tallinn and other towns. 
 
5. TOURING/MOBILITY STRUCTURES AND NETWORKS  
There are no official networks for touring and mobility in Estonia. Producers and co-
producers are responsible for touring of their productions. There are three main 
production and co-production organizations in Estonia for contemporary dance – 
Kanuti Gildi SAAL / 2.tants, Estonian Dance Agency and STU (Independent Dance

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With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union  
Association). They are dealing also with organizing the touring and looking for 
financing of them.  
In Viljandi and Pärnu there are independent organizations organizing series of 
contemporary dance performances in their towns – Eve Studio in Viljandi.  
Festivals in Tartu, Viljandi, Pärnu and Haapsalu are also giving possibilities for touring. 
 
6. FUNDING OF MOBILITY AND TOURING OF NATIONAL AND FOREIGN DANCE 
COMPANIES 
Financing of touring in Estonia is mainly coming from four different institutions: 
local municipalities, Cultural Endowment of Estonia; local offices of the Cultural 
Endowment of Estonia and programme “Theatre to countryside”. 
Foreign touring of Estonian choreographers or groups is often supported from Cultural 
Endowment of Estonia or Estonian Ministry of Culture. 
The organisers of festivals or guest performances can apply funding from Estonian 
Ministry of Culture and from Cultural Endowment of Estonia to invite foreign dance 
companies to perform. Also foreign cultural offices or embassies can support these 
events. 
 
7. ESTONIAN DANCE ABROAD  
During 2012 (last statistics available; from Yearbook of Estonian Theatre Statistics 
2012), 3 Estonian dance companies and choreographers presented 12 performances 
and gave a total of 31 performances in 15 different countries.  
 
8. RESIDENCIES 
In Estonia we have two different residency places, one is Okasroosikese castle offered 
by STÜ and Kanuti Gildi SAAL offered by Teine Tants.

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Pasteursvej 14, DK 1799 Copenhagen V, Denmark +45 33 88 80 01 www.kedja.net   
  
With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union  
9. CO-PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES 
Kanuti Gildi SAAL, STÜ (Independent Dance Association) and Estonian Dance Agency 
are the producers or co-producers of most Estonian independent dance productions. 
Simultaneously they are responsible for these artists touring arrangements.  
Sometimes some festivals are co-producing local and foreign productions. 
State theatres are not interested in co-producing contemporary dance productions but 
occasionally might produce one by themselves. 
Some companies have also foreign co-producers. 
 
10. DAILY TRAINING 
There are daily dance classes and workshops by Tantsijalt Tantsijale (From Dancer to 
Dancer) and workshops from STÜ, half of them supported by the Union of Estonian 
Dance Artists.  
 
11. NATIONAL FEATURES 
Estonian dance scene consists of 10-15 active choreographers/groups who are 
production based. So there are several productions and festivals, but there is a big 
lack of spaces for rehearsing and especially for performing. Also there is lack of 
touring networks or other support systems for touring and mobility and regional 
centres. This applies both to national and international work.  
Three dance organizations (producers, co-producers) are supported partly by the 
Ministry of Culture. 
Estonia has two ballet companies – Estonian National Ballet in Tallinn and Vanemuine 
Ballet in Tartu. 
Yearly 10-15 premieres by independent artists. Total audience number for 
contemporary dance yearly around 25000-35000. 
This paper is produced June-July 2014 by Raido Bergstein and Monika Tomingas from 
the Union of Estonian Dance Artists.  
www.tantsuliit.ee