Ice Hot Nordic Dance Platform – postponed until autumn 2028
Current status report 4 March 2026 – an update on Ice Hot.
Over the past months, the Ice Hot partners have taken time to reflect on the platform’s role within the Nordic contemporary dance landscape.
We share a strong conviction: Nordic collaboration in the performing arts is not only important — it is unique. In a challenging geopolitical moment, sustained cultural cooperation across our region matters more than ever. To safeguard artistic quality, sustainability, and long-term impact, we have decided to postpone and relaunch Ice Hot in a renewed format in autumn 2028.
This is not a step back, but a step toward strengthening the platform’s foundation. In the coming years, we will reshape and further develop Ice Hot to ensure it remains a vital framework for artistic exchange — rooted in the field and responsive to future needs.
At a time when cultural institutions and the performing arts are facing increasing pressure in many parts of the world, and when space for artistic expression is in some contexts becoming more limited, Nordic collaboration carries particular significance. Independent, cross-border platforms such as Ice Hot help sustain dialogue, mobility, and long-term artistic development. This is not a political statement, but a reflection of the realities shaping our shared cultural landscape. In this broader context, the Ice Hot collaboration makes strong and lasting sense.
Ice Hot will return — rethought, resilient, and firmly grounded in the exceptional artistic strength of the Nordic contemporary dance scene.
We look forward to continuing the dialogue.
Please stay tuned for a new open call, along with information about the location, in connection with the 2028 edition.
Ice Hot will be back!
– The ICE HOT partners
DANSENS HUS STOCKHOLM (Sweden)
DANSENS HUS OSLO (Norway)
DANSEHALLERNE (Denmark)
PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE ICELAND
Coexistance – what we hoped for the platform of 2026.
During the platform 2026 we would have let the concept of Coexistence guide and challenge us.
To Co-Exist. To Co-Inhabit. To be together, to work next to, to grow together, to embody differences and nourish each other. In an ecosystem we need each other. Humans need each other and needs insects, and we all need plants and so on. We all need to coexist.
How does the dance field coexist when financial resources are tightened, when the social climate becomes increasingly polarized and artistic freedom is threatened in several places, in the Nordic Country’s as well as in the rest of Europe.
We wanted to find inputs into the artform that include cultural and artist political aspects. During Ice Hot we would have dived deep and discuss and explore what “coexistence” is today and could be tomorrow.
We wanted to explore the multifaceted dance field in the Nordics. Welcoming a large palette of artistic expressions, genres and practitioners. Dance and Choreography bridges differences, and can create spaces that offer multiple perspectives, instead of opinions. Dance and Choreography can suggest new approaches, positions and power relations. Dance and Choreography presupposes an open and trying approach, which does not necessarily confirm our belief systems.
We wanted to highlight contemporary dance as an art form that both coexists with, and of course, play an important part of the Nordic society. What do the conditions for the art form look like in our region? What norms, mechanisms and hierarchies exist in the interaction between educations, financiers, presenters and audiences?
Hopefully, these are questions we will continue to discuss in other formats than what would have been ICE HOT Nordic Dance Platform in 2026.