About the festival

“Vides Deja” is an international contemporary dance festival that focuses specifically on developing the genre of “site-specific” dance within Latvia’s the professional contemporary dance scene. It also serves an educational purpose by offering audiences a unique theatrical experience and providing opportunities for local residents, dance enthusiasts, and especially young people to participate in masterclasses and creative workshops.

The concept of site-specific dance refers to contemporary dance performances that occur outside traditional performance spaces. Such events are created for a specific location or environment, which becomes an integral part of the production. The environment serves as a source of inspiration, an artistic foundation, or as one of expressive elements of the performance, installation, or show. It is a space-time continuum with its own energy, inseparable from the production’s concept.

The festival program also includes guest performances, exhibitions, films about dance, and more.

The municipalities where each festival is held remain our primary partners year after year.

To date, the festival has been held for two years in Piņķi (formerly Babītes, now Mārupes county), four years in Ropaži (Ropaži county), including a year featuring a program of masterclasses and guest performances in five nerighbouring regions – Inčukalns, Ikšķile, Berģi, Suntaži, un Tīnūži. In the following two years, the festival was hosted at the Lūznava Manor in Lūznava, one year in Riga and simultaneously in Ķeipene (Ogre county), and for the last two years in Līgatne.