The idea of a Baltic Dance Platform – a co-operation between the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – was first floated in the 1990s. The three countries were neighbours, and had some shared history as part of the former Soviet bloc, but otherwise were quite distinct, and in the contemporary dance field they knew little of each other; indeed many dance artists – then as now – went elsewhere for higher training and professional experience, particularly to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
There were, of course, some international festivals – notably New Baltic Dance (founded 1997 in Lithuania) and Baltic Bubble (founded in 2012, first edition in Estonia) – but it took until 2019 for the first Baltic Dance Platform to be launched, in Vilnius, Lithuania, over three days within the frame of New Baltic Dance. A little over 40 international presenters attended, and the artist selection was made separately by each of the Baltic partners – Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava/STL, Lithuanian Dance Information Centre and Latvian Dance Information Centre.
The second edition in Tallinn, Estonia was planned for 2021 but the Covid pandemic intervened, and it was postponed to May 2022. Again, each partner selected three works each to show, their presentations supplemented by pitching sessions (five from each country), plus workshops and parallel activities.
This third edition, in Riga, Latvia (9–11 February 2024), represents the completion of the first cycle (the next platform will return to Lithuania in 2026). The now established pattern continued – three works from three countries over three days – as did the pitching sessions (five from each country); additionally there were artist talks, networking sessions and parallel activities. The big difference in this edition was the selection, which was made not by the Baltic partners but by an international jury – Julia Asperska (PL), Pedro Barreiro (PT), Johanna Ikola (FI), Bush Hartshorn (UK) and Gergely Talló (HU) – who selected from 77 applications.
How did the platform play out? Click on some of the other tracks in this On Record album for more viewpoints…
