Det Frie Felts industry days

Terms and conditions and experiences in international work

Waves Festival in collaboration with Dansk Samtidscirkus, Udviklingsplatformen for Scenekunst, Uafhængige Scenekunstnere and Det Frie Felts Festival.

Moderator & host: Laura Allen Müller

Please note: The days will be conducted in English.

Two days focusing on experiences and strategies for international work in the independent field. The days bring together Danish and international artists, producers and institutions. Through presentations, conversations and knowledge exchange, we will explore how artists and organisations navigate international work under changing conditions and frameworks, and how we in the independent field can support each other. Participate in community exchange and experiences. See the programme for the two days below.

On the third day, under the title The Free Field Branch Days, we focus on value-based and non-hierarchical processes under the title Holistic Perspective and Process. See this programme, to be held on Thursday 28 August, here.

Programme Tuesday 26.8

09.30 - 09.40 Welcome to our website

09.40 - 10.25 Danish Arts Foundation Project Support Committee v. Committee Chair Gitta Malling & Gry Worre Hallberg. The committee's observations and recommendations to the Free Field in relation to international work and new initiatives

10.25 - 11.10am Botis Seva (UK), artistic director of Far from the Norm and director of Waves Festival's opening performance BLKDOG, interviewed by Gitte Nielsen, manager of Egnsteatret in Vordingborg Municipality

11.10 - 11.20 am Pause

11.20 - 11.40 Bridging the Scenes Networking, European network of festivals for the independent field, presented in conversation between Alexander HadjievArtistic Director of Fringify Festival and Gritt Uldall-Jessen, director Det Frie Felts Festival. 

11.40 - 12.20 Community Knowledge sharing - In small groups, participants share knowledge from their own practice in relation to international work. What are the biggest challenges? Participants crystallise dilemmas that can be discussed in the monopoly later in the day.

12.20 - 13.20 Lunch

13.20 - 13.50 Out of balance - international focus & strategy, interviewed by Laura A. Müller

13.50 - 14.20 Sister´s Hope - sisters sensing the world in collaboration with the Danish Cultural Institute v. Gry Worre Hallberg, interviewed by Laura Allen Müller

14.20 - 14.35 Community experience - Surprise! v. Line Svendsen

14.30 - 14.40 Pause

14.30 - 15.30 Laura & Monopoly: Monopoly discusses participants' dilemmas in international work

• Geir Lindahl, international project manager CPH stage
• Svend E. Kristensen, Sew Flunk Fury Wit 
• Karen Toftegaard, Wildtopia
• Iury Salustiano Trojaborg, Ph.D Malmö University

15:30 Thank you for today and head out to experience the festival's artistic programme

Performances on Tuesday 26 Aug.

16.30 - 17.45 Don Quixote (Teatro dei venti) Outdoors at the new city hall

19.00 - 20.00 Opening reception Vordingborg Theatre

20.00 - 21.05 BLKDOG (Far from the Norm), Vordingborg Theatre

21.00 - 23.00 Festival Centre is open at Pavilion KEnjoy a glass of wine or a beer with colleagues and visiting artists

Programme Wednesday 27.8

9.30 - 9.35 am Welcome to our website

9.35 - 10.20 am fix+foxy - the company's international work v. Tue Biering in conversation with Laura Allen Müller

10.20 - 11.10am Best practice international work: Cunts Collective & Boys*InSync
moderated by Laura Allen Müller

11.10 - 11.20 Break

11.20 - 12.10 How do we unite and strengthen the performing arts industry - together into the future?
Two suggestions for an answer by Danish Performing Arts (formerly Danish Theatre) and Independent Performing Artists.
Danish Performing Arts' presentation by director Peter Mark Lundberg (10 min.)
Uafhængige Scenekunstneres indlæg board member v. Maja Bonde Holtze (10 min.)
Followed by questions and dialogue with the audience, moderated by Laura Allen Müller (30 min)
OBS: program punktet er på dansk/ this session is in Danish, it is possible to sit with a translator and to ask questions or make comments in English

12.10 - 12.20 Danish Artist Association v. front person Sara Indrio: performing arts across borders - the association's international policy work

12.20 - 13.20 Lunch

13.20 - 13.40 Moving Identities v. The development platform for performing arts v Camilla Gürtler , Strategic Development Manager Producer on the Development Platform

13.40 - 14.20 Conversation tables - challenges and paths in international work (presentation and subsequent table conversation)
Hosts:
Warehouse 9 v. Emma Castro Møller and Jørgen Callesen. Warehouse9 hosts a conversation about international collaboration, festivals and showcases.
Dansehallerne v. Danjel Andersson
Dynamo v. Gry Lambertsen

14.20 - 14.30 Pause

14.30 - 15.30 Community knowledge sharing: Dilemmas in international work
The hall is the monopoly on dilemmas posed by presenters

3.30 pm Thanks for today and off to experience the festival's artistic programme

Performances Wednesday 27 Aug.

15.50 - 16.30 Flow (Lai Yee) outdoor performance, Stentorvet

16.40 - 17.15 The Skaters (15Ft), outdoor performance, in front of Borgerservice

17.30 - 19.00 Shrouded (Institute of Interconnected realities)

17.30 - 19.00 Wavesorama (Tom Greder Kino Teater), outdoor performance, Slotstorvet

19.00 - 19.30 Dinner talk

20.00 - 21.00 Wake Up (Paolo Nani Theatre)

21.30 - 22.15 Citizen (Kristjan Ingimarsson Company)

17.00 - 23.00 The bar is open in the festival centre

We invite you to stay in Vordingborg and participate in Thursday's programme, which is the third day of Det Frie Felts Branchedage, about Holistic perspective and process.

You will meet

Laura Allen Müller

Moderator at the Free Fields Branch Days.
Actor, architect and artistic entrepreneur. Laura graduated from DDSKS in 2001 and has since freelanced as a performing artist in most media, genres and production conditions, often based on devising, animation and puppetry. She is committed to system-changing work, including as one of the initiators of the award-winning campaign A Bigger Picture (2023), which works to create real diversity in the Danish film and media world. Laura also supports emerging talent development as a mentor, consultant and board member at Filmværksted København. In her architectural practice, she primarily works with space and sculpture.

The Danish Arts Foundation's project support committee

v. Committee chair Gitta Malling & committee member Gry Worre Hallberg

The Project Support Committee for Performing Arts awards grants for activities that promote performing arts in Denmark and Danish performing arts abroad. They support activities and projects by theatres, independent groups, project theatres, children's theatres, regional theatres and small metropolitan theatres within all genres of the performing arts.

Gitta Malling

Since 2001, Gitta Malling has been artistic director and director of Limfjordsteatret on Mors and in Thy. From 2022 to the end of 2025, she is the chair of the Project Support Committee for Performing Arts at the Danish Arts Foundation, where she was also chair of the board for the first two years. Previously, she was chair of the board of TIO (now Danish Performing Arts) 2011-2016 and since 2021 chair of the board of Applaus. She is also on the board of UngKult. Gitta has directed theatre for adults and children as well as regional plays all over the country. She is also a graduate of the Ecole Philippe Gaulier in London.

Gry Worre Hallberg

Gry Worre Hallberg - Performance artist, co-founder and artistic director of the award-winning performance group and movement Sisters Hope, PhD. Gry is behind the vision The Sensuous Society, a radical vision of the future beyond economic rationality, inhabited in Sisters Hope's performance universe - See also her TEDxtalks Sensuous Society (2013) and Sensuous Learning (2015). Her artistic research PhD (2021) unfolds how we can move towards a more unfolded sensuality and how it will support a more sustainable future through artistic 'inhabitation practices'. She has received the Danish Artist Association's appreciation award, the Bikuben Foundation's exhibition award VISION and has been appointed IETM Global Connector.

Botis Seva/ Far from the Norm

Botis Seva is a unique and seminal choreographic voice rooted in hip-hop dance theatre and inspired by a free approach to choreography. His work is rooted in real life and captures his own stories, as well as those around him, while borrowing techniques from film, text, art and other dance languages to continuously reinvent his approach to creativity and the stage. Far from the Norm brings a variety of dance styles to the studio, from Popping to Breaking, from Krump to House. They challenge perceptions of hip hop and create work that empowers marginalised people. All of their work is original, vital and fearless, inviting debate on socio-political issues and the modern world.

Gitte Nielsen

Manager of Egnsteatret in Vordingborg Municipality. Egnsteatret is part of a vibrant base for performing arts and community in the performing arts centre Pavillon K. Egnsteatret is dedicated to artistic freedom and sees diversity as a strength and community as a driving force. We are located in the centre of Vordingborg. Our repertoire ranges from the intimate to the monumental - from experimental and sensual performances to visually stunning performances. We work to develop and maintain a local environment where art is present in everyday life and where both new and familiar voices can grow. In January 2024, Egnsteatret got a new management and changed its name to Egnsteatret i Vordingborg Kommune.

Alexander Hadjiev

Alexandar Hadjiev, born in Sofia, is a musician, composer, performer and curator with an interdisciplinary art focus. He has collaborated with Ksenia Ravvina, Heinz Holliger, Sofia Gubaidulina, Ensemble Modern and many others and presented works in Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, France, Belgium, Germany, Bulgaria, Finland and other places. He is co-founder of 180° - Laboratory for Innovative Art Festival (Bulgaria) and artistic director of Fringify - Independent Arts Festival Hamburg, and is on the board of ACT Association for Independent Theatre Bulgaria. He also develops cultural education projects for young audiences.
www.fringify.hamburg

Gritt Uldall-Jessen

Gritt Uldall-Jessen is a playwright and director of Det Frie Felts Festival. She co-founded Det Frie Felts Festival in 2014 and has been involved in organising all eight editions of the festival so far. Her background is the Playwriting Programme, MA in Danish from KUA and a diploma in management from Copenhagen University College. Det Frie Felts Festival presents and visualises works from the Danish-based independent field of performing arts. It takes place every second year in Copenhagen and Aarhus. Since 2019, Det Frie Felts Festival has been part of the European festival network Bridging the Scenes.

Out of balance

Out of Balanz is an award-winning, internationally touring performing arts company based in Copenhagen and led by theatre artists Katrina Bugaj and Troels Hagen Findsen. Out of Balanz has more than a decade of experience in devising and creating intercultural and interdisciplinary works. The company operates in the cross-aesthetic field, drawing on contemporary circus, musical theatre, physical theatre and text-based drama. With an emphasis on experimentation and a playful and exploratory practice, they seek to reinvent how stories are told and to inspire new ways of thinking, being and acting. They create performing arts projects that address contemporary issues and have been featured in the prestigious American magazine Backstage as one of the most innovative physical performing arts ensembles in the world. They have toured 18 different countries in Europe, North America and Asia.

Line Svendsen

Artistic director of Teater Du Milde Himmel, which produces theatre and events for adults and children. Freelance performer in the independent field for 30 years. Line has a versatile artistic expression and has collaborated in a wide range of constellations over the years.
Board member since 2021 of Pavillon K, an artist community of 13 performing artists based in Vordingborg.  

Geir Lindahl

Geir is International Project Manager at CPH STAGE in Copenhagen and has over 10 years of experience in cultural policy, funding programmes and international cooperation. He has previously been a senior advisor at Nordic Culture Point in Helsinki and an advisor at PAHN - Performing Arts Hub Norway. With strong competences in project management, networking and public administration, Geir has worked closely with ministries, embassies and cultural institutions throughout the Nordic region and internationally.

Svend E. Kristensen

Svend E Kristensen is the artistic director of Sew Flunk Fury Wit and originator of the concept of neopuppetry. In collaboration with other artists in SFFW, he has created highly visual and music-dramatic performances such as STØV, CRASH, The Foxcave (immersive), Corpo Surreal, Feinschmecker and most recently RITUAL - Rejsekammeraten. The works combine composition, operatic vocals, sound works, specially developed life-sized animation figures and cross-aesthetic formats. SFFW has gained international recognition through tours on four continents and through collaborations in co-productions. At its core is a practice that renews animation theatre as experimental performing arts for adults.

Karen Toftegaard

Karen is a strategic cultural entrepreneur with +20 years of experience in festival and industry development, communication and international export and co-operation. She runs WILDTOPIA - a strategic development partner for cultural institutions, organisations and artistic leaders. WILDTOPIA produces #DANISH showcase at EdFringe and workshops such as SHINE YOUR WORK. Karen has previously been behind the development of CPH STAGE's international efforts and helped present international performing arts with Metropolis and Republique. She has solid board experience, teaches at the University of Copenhagen and collaborates across the cultural sector - with a global outlook, strategic development and anchoring in Danish culture.

Iury Salustiano Trojaborg

Iury Salustiano Trojaborg is a queer brown diaspora artist-researcher interested in the connections between theatre/performance, migration and sustainability. She is currently a PhD candidate at Malmö Theatre Academy and at the Agenda 2030 Graduate School at Lund University, Sweden. Her artistic research project, On Ancestrality and Regeneration: Performing Decolonial Journeys, aims to explore ways of using dramaturgy and performance art as socio-political tools to provoke change in the lives of immigrants who willingly travelled the old colonial routes back to the European countries that colonised them. The project explores the process of the construction of cultural identities in a postcolonial performative environment according to the intersection of gender, class, race and ableism, promoting an active dialogue with the geographical areas where this research takes place: Malmö, Sweden; Rio de Janeiro, Belém and Manaus, Brazil and Copenhagen, Denmark

Tue Biering

Tue is the artistic director of Fix+foxy since 2007.
He has directed performances, worked with performance installations, site-specific works, interventions, exhibitions and other forms of art projects. Working at the intersection of documentary and pop culture references. Often involving people who have never been on stage and often staged in places that are far from the traditional theatre setting - in urban spaces, private homes or institutions.   

Peter Mark Lundberg

Peter is the director of Danish Theatre. Danish Theatre is the industry and employer organisation for professionally producing theatres and performing arts companies throughout Denmark. Danish Theatre's membership spans project theatres, regional theatres, small metropolitan theatres, regional stages, theatres in the Copenhagen Theatre Cooperation, the Jutland Opera and the Royal Danish Theatre. Danish Theatre is structured as a member association with a board of directorselected by the general meeting.

Maja Bonde Holtze

Maja Bonde Holtze is a producer in the producer community prfrm, which was founded with colleagues Mikkel Søndergaard Kryger and Amina Krohn Membar in the spring of 2021. prfrm has collaborated with over 40 artists, companies and institutions - primarily in the independent field - and entered into co-production agreements with approximately 20 stages and festivals. With a broad experience from working with artists and companies in all phases of their careers, and a great insight into the production cycle for the independent field, Maja is strongly interested in production conditions and the concept of fair practice, which HAUT explored in a seminar under the same name in December 2024. Maja is a board member of HAUT (Feb. 2025), AVIAJA Dance (Feb. 2024) and Uafhængige Scenekunstnere (March 2024).

Tone Haldrup Lorenzen

CuntsCollective is a performing arts collective based in Denmark, Germany and the Basque Country. Since its founding in 2018, the collective has served as a platform for artistic collaboration, where equal partnerships, shared resources and collective practice are at the centre. With a decentralised and process-based approach, their practice moves freely across disciplines and formats in an ongoing investigation of form, method and relationships. In close dialogue with a diverse network of artists and institutions, they explore new avenues for collective practice. The collective has curated residency programmes in Brazil and Denmark, worked in a wide range of international contexts and toured performances in China and several European countries.

Boys*InSync

Boys* in Sync is an international theatre and performance collective working with the phenomenon of synchronicity in different social and cultural contexts. They mix cheesiness and 90s nostalgia with serious self-deprecating humour and topical European political events. They are five performing artists who met while training at the Academy of Performing Arts in Fredrikstad, Norway: Simon Zeller (DE), Jakob Krog (DK), Livia Hiselius (SE), Gregers Hansen (NO/PL) and Ragni Halle (NO). 
They have collaborated with theatre institutions such as Deutsches Theater Berlin, Toaster/Husets Teater Copenhagen, Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig, Kaserne Basel Switzerland, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Sophiensaele Berlin and Teater Kloden Oslo.

Sara Indrio

Sara Indrio is a musician and chairperson of the Danish Artist Association, she is deeply engaged in international policy work to strengthen the performing arts' opportunities for international work. Sara graduated from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory as a percussionist in 1998 and has worked as a musician on countless concerts and album cuts. She has released five albums under her own name and has written music for films, TV series and theatre performances. At the same time, she has taken a postgraduate degree in journalism and studied for a master's degree in music didactics.

Camilla Gürtler

Camilla is a strategic development producer at the Development Platform for Performing Arts. UP works to develop and qualify the independent performing arts throughout Denmark and Danish independent performing arts abroad. In close collaboration with other actors in the performing arts industry, UP creates a wide range of offers and opportunities for artists, companies and collectives working professionally with performing arts without a fixed stage. Camilla is the project manager of the international collaboration Moving Identities funded by Creative Europe with UP as lead, where partner organisations in six different countries create and exchange residencies for smaller performing arts groups. Read more about Moving Identities here:  Moving Identities. Since 2016, UP has received operating support from the Danish Arts Foundation and the Bikuben Foundation and regularly enters into 4-year framework agreements with these foundations.

Warehouse 9

Emma Castro Møller and Jørgen Callesen are the leaders of Warehouse 9. Warehouse 9 is a performing arts organisation with a focus on performance and interdisciplinary formats. We support LGBTQIA+ artists in their practice, process and presentation. We work for more diverse and sustainable working conditions, make room for bold ideas, strengthen communities and create spaces for queer performing arts - all year round.

Danjel Andersson

Danjel Andersson is Director and Artistic Director of Dansehallerne in Copenhagen, Denmark's national centre for contemporary dance. He is the former artistic director of MDT in Stockholm (2010-2019) and has influenced major festivals such as Perfect Performance and TUPP. He is the editor of the book Post-Dance and the journal Visslingar & Rop. With a background as a dramaturge, critic and performance researcher, Andersson is known for his commitment to redefining the role of dance in society. At Dansehallerne, he fights for increased visibility, Nordic collaboration and sustainable international touring.

Gry Lambertsen

Gry is the director of DYNAMO. Dynamo is a house started from the bottom up by two cultural entrepreneurs and DO IT YOURSELF artists. Circus artists Gry Lambertsen and Rune Vadstrøm Andersen were in Copenhagen with many years of touring and performances under their belts, with a burning need for production facilities and a performance space for circus in Denmark. Dynamo is an open stage, an artistic sanctuary and a place with high ceilings... literally. In 2017, they got the opportunity in Odense and opened DYNAMO - stage & workspace for circus and physical performing arts. DYNAMO regularly hosts guest performances, self-productions, artist in residencies, artist talks and special events. They have between 15-20 national and international circus companies in residency per year!

Practical info

Price

Attendance at the industry days is free of charge. You will be charged a no-show fee of DKK 300 if you register and do not show up without cancellation in good time. We therefore encourage you to take your registration seriously, even though it is free - you are taking up a place for someone else and by being precise with the number of participants we can avoid food waste. Participant ticket includes professional programme and delicious vegetarian lunch.

Transport

We encourage participants from Copenhagen to travel by train to Vordingborg. It is easy and takes 57 minutes from Copenhagen Central Station to Vordingborg Station. The 8:07 departure arrives at 9:04. It takes 10 minutes to walk to Pavilion K. 
We invite the industry to meet at the clock 20 - 25 minutes before departure for networking and a joint train ride. 

Accommodation

You can sleep in Dormitory in the gym of a school close to Pavilion K for 35 kr. 
(bring your own mat, pillow and sleeping bag) 
The hall is not locked.

There are camping cabins at Ore Strand Camping, located on the beach and 3 km from Pavillon K.
There are also many options for Airbnb.

Questions

If you have any questions about content and programme, please write to Project Manager Siri Haff Andersen at siri@egnsteatret.dk
If you have any questions about logistics (accommodation, cancellations, changes in participation, food etc.) please write to bisgaard@egnsteatret.dk

Sign up - no later than 22 August

Book theatre tickets, meals and dormitory accommodation together when registering.

Scan the QR code to register or press Buy ticket on the right. 
Please note: you must add a participant ticket to your basket to be able to select food, theatre tickets and dormitory accommodation.