Fifteen years of diverse and inspiring dance art
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The first Regional Dance Centres in Finland were established in 2004 following a proposal by a working group of the Ministry of Education and Culture, with the support of earmarked funding. During the 2024–2025 performance season, the network of Regional Dance Centres celebrated its 20th anniversary.
In Ostrobothnia, local dance artists and supporters, led by the power women of dance, Mia Wiik and Mari Omars, joined forces to prepare for the next possible funding round. Thanks to this pioneering work — and countless grant applications — the former Province of Vaasa also gained its well-deserved Dance Centre. Thus, the Regional Dance Centre of Ostrobothnia was established in 2010, fifteen years ago, through collaboration between municipalities and regional councils and a shared commitment to supporting new regional performing arts.
The Centre was initially administered by WATT ry (Dance Artists of the Vaasa Region), a long-established local association, until 2015, when a new association — Pohjanmaan tanssi ry (Dance in Ostrobothnia) — was founded specifically to take over this responsibility.
One of the founders, dance pioneer Pirjo Viitanen, describes the Centre’s beginnings:
“You always hope for everything — to have more dance artists in the region, more jobs around Finland, to make dance more accessible, so that everyone can see and experience it. The Dance Centre has made courses and events possible, and as a result, more dance professionals have settled in the area. The Centre has done a remarkable job, considering the limited resources.”
And so it happened! Today, the Regional Dance Centre of Ostrobothnia has become a well-established and invaluable player in the field of dance art across Ostrobothnia, Central Ostrobothnia and South Ostrobothnia.
Artists and Audiences at the Heart of Our Work
Throughout its years of operation, the Centre has co-produced dozens of dance works — both by local artists and as guest performances. It has supported and enabled the artistic work of numerous regional dance artists, developed concepts that combine culture and wellbeing, produced countless free performances, and organised workshops for a wide range of audiences — from performing arts professionals to local residents, from children to seniors.
Each year, the Centre’s activities reach thousands of people. Collaboration with other cultural actors in the region is close, and our active networks also extend across the Gulf of Bothnia. Through the Nordic Regional (Net)working network established by the Centre, artist residencies are organised in cooperation with dance centres in northern Sweden and Norway that operate in similar environments.
This Nordic collaboration creates new job opportunities for regional artists and fosters collegial exchange and knowledge sharing on an international scale.
A Toast to the Next 15 Years!
A large part of the Centre’s activities are offered free of charge to participants, keeping the threshold for experiencing high-quality art — and for artists’ professional development — as low as possible. In this way, we aim to ensure that everyone in Ostrobothnia has access to professional, high-quality dance art.
Our goal is to continue growing sustainably and responsibly — for the benefit of art, artists, and the entire Ostrobothnian community.
As Pirjo Viitanen puts it:
“It’s so important that there are artists all over Finland! I used to get so frustrated that dance only existed in Helsinki! I thought, this can’t be right — and that’s why we moved back to my mother’s home region.”
Indeed — art and culture are needed everywhere, and local creators and audiences play a key role in this, now and in the future.
Reija Penttinen
Producer, Communications Specialist
Regional Dance Centre of Ostrobothnia
This text was originally published in the blog Kynäälyjä by the Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia.
It includes excerpts from a text by Veera Lamberg, which you can read here!
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