The joy and pleasure of dancing at the exhibition

Dancing has always been part of our social life. People have danced when they come together, in everyday life and in celebration, indoors and outdoors, wherever they are. Dance is a unifying force, intimate and physical.

Everybody Dance! is an exhibition about dancing. Dance creates and strengthens identity. Dance traditions are passed down from generation to generation. New fashion dances are born and spread instantly across the globe via the internet. Some are forgotten as quickly as they were born, others seem to last for decades.

Dance is both an intimate and collective form of interaction, with the body at its centre. The body carries with it knowledge and skills that can be difficult or even impossible to articulate. Dancing together allows for non-verbal encounters and shared experiences. Experiences become memories, and memories are allowed to rest in the body.

The exhibition looks back at the dance hits of recent years, explores dance traditions from different countries and cultures, and the communities and phenomena that have grown up around dance. In Finland, the exhibition includes a visit to the Mummodisco (senior disco), a folk dance event and the Tango Festival in Seinäjoki, from which we jump to Swedish polska and Sámi sydis, Latin salsa, African dances and Middle Eastern dabke.

And the exhibition is not just about visiting and exploring, but of course dancing! You can try the movement yourself, dance along, participate. You can dance everywhere: in the ballroom, in the kitchen, in the forest - and in the museum. And most importantly: everyone can dance!

Everybody Dance! opened to the public on 27 January 2023 and is open until 3 September.

Everybody Dance! is a collaboration between the Theatre Museum, the Swedish Scenkonstmuseet and the Norwegian Norsk senter for folkemusikk og folkedans. Much of the exhibition is literally danced together – it consists of video footage sent in by Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian dancers. Before the Theatre Museum, the exhibition was shown at Scenkonstmuseet in Stockholm and Rockheim Museum in Trondheim.

Everybody Dance! has been supported by Nordisk Kulturfond, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Foundation.

The makers of the exhibition:

Project management: Tone Erlien Myrvold, Annika Gooch
Curators: Tone Erlien Myrvold, Kaisa Tiainen, Lars Annersten, Anna Björk
Exhibition design: MUSEEA
Graphic design: MUSEEA
Audiovisual installations and light: Øystein Kjørstad Fjeldbo
Installation Keeping together in time: Sara Lindström
Film editing: Odin Kvistad
Production: Eckerud True Quality

Creatively involved: Egil Bakka, Sanna Brander, Aleksander Dybowski, Elina Eskola, Monica Åslund Forsén, Gwendoline Gambet, Anna Gavanas, Georgiana Gore, Cathryn Humphreys, Stefan Korpar, Pälvi Laine, Eeva Mustonen, Heini Räsänen, Raija-Liisa Seilo, Johan Sturk, Elisabeth Tegner, Philip Teir.