Guiding Principles for the Jury of Ice Hot Helsinki 2022

The jury of Ice Hot Helsinki has two guiding principles for its selection of the 2022 edition:

• Sustainability in the field of dance and choreography
• Nordic ecosystem for dance and choreography

These principles serve as a starting point for other discussions such as eligibility, quality, representation and so on.

Sustainability

With sustainability we pledge ourselves to think long-term and of positive ripple-effects. When we talk about sustainability we think of it as an umbrella term for taking care of our planet, taking care of our artform and taking care of the art workers.

Taking care of our planet – Building sustainable networks is one way to make it easier and healthier to move dance and choreography productions around in an environmentally friendly way. Making it possible for the teams to stay longer and move between platforms (presenting or residencies, et al.) closer to each other.

Taking care of our artform – Dance and choreography as an artform need sustainable structures to exist. This means that it is important for us as a jury to think about how to make the production facilities, funding bodies and other training facilities, work together in our region. What can we as a Nordic network do to create a sustainable working climate?

Taking care of the art workers – The artform needs that the workers have sustainable situations to create the work from. This in general terms means that the community of workers on the field should be a mix of many different layers of society and the working conditions equal and healthy.

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a delicate system. When it functions it creates a situation where everything can co-exist and grow together; the big and the small, the new and the old. In every country the education system, the funding system and the presenting system (including the audience and public interest), all define under what circumstances the artform exists. In the Nordic region the systems are varied, and functional in various degrees.

In the jury we have committed ourselves to think about the Nordic ecosystem for dance and choreography. How can the programme we compose strengthen the Nordic level of this ecosystem? We see Ice Hot Helsinki as a platform for e.g.:

• Strengthening the bonds between Nordic artists, making the region a co-working region. 
• Communicating the work that is being made – both inside and outside the region. 
• Working to make local as well as international connections.

See also the SELECTION PROCESS ›

Written by the Ice Hot Helsinki 2022 curators, in March 2021.