Evolving Screendance Gotland
A screendance workshop + public film festival
18–23 May 2026 · Visby, Gotland, Sweden

Evolving Screendance Gotland is a unique curated workshop which concludes with a public festival-style screening of work by filmmakers, choreographers, and dancers who take part in the workshop. Deadline March 22 - Limited Seats!

Across six days, the workshop offers in-depth dialogue, mentoring, and critical exchange around participants’ own works, artistic processes, and the evolving language of dance on film and the opportunity for practical exercises and hands-on experimentation with access to dance studios and locations in and around the medieval city of Visby, Sweden. Evolving Screendance Gotland culminates in public screenings and moderated Q&A conversations with audiences at the local Folkets Bio Betty cinema as part of a one-time special film festival. As this is an intermediate level workshop, participants are invited to attend based on application materials.

Led by Douglas Rosenberg (USA) — acclaimed director of The Sea and author of Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image — together with cinematographer Paul Wu, the program offers an immersive space for creation, dialogue, and experimentation.

A special guest session will be led by Ami Skånberg, Swedish choreographer and researcher known for her embodied, cross-cultural approach to dance and film.

As a participant, you will:

Join a small, international peer group of screendance artists
Take part in an exclusive workshop led by Douglas Rosenberg
Explore the aesthetic, technical and production possibilities in screendance
Have your film screened publicly at a cinema festival in Visby
Engage in moderated Q&A sessions with a public audience
Be part of the next evolution of dance and movement on film.

More than a workshop, Evolving Screendance Gotland is a meeting place for artists redefining the relationship between movement, camera, and place — an invitation to shape the next steps in the art of screendance.

For: professional filmmakers, choreographers and dancers.

Cost: €800 (inc. lunch)

When: May 18-23, 2026
Where: Visby, Gotland (Sweden)
Language: English

Application: The submission deadline is March 22, 2026.

Travel and Accomodation: Participants are responsible for arranging and covering their own travel to and from Gotland, as well as accommodation during the workshop.

We recommend booking early, as travel and lodging options can be limited during the season. Gotland is easily reached by ferry or plane from mainland Sweden, and Visby offers a wide range of accommodation — from hotels and hostels to private rentals. Closer to the festival dates, we will share practical information and local tips to help you plan your stay, including suggested areas to stay in, transport options on the island, and ways to connect with other participants who may wish to share accommodation. If you have specific access needs or questions related to travel logistics, feel free to reach out — we’ll do our best to support you with information and guidance.

We look forward to welcoming you to Gotland and to sharing time, space, and movement together.

Visby, Gotland

workshop@hjartanikki.com

Apply to Evolving Screendance Gotland + Film Festival!

Please submit your application by email to: workshop@hjartanikki.com

Your application should include:

A personal statement
A short biography
A brief description of your previous experience in dance film / screendance
A film that you directed or choreographed

How to submit your film:

We accept digital submissions only, via a private Vimeo link or a similar secure online platform. There are no premiere requirements, and the festival is non-competitive. Our focus is on shared viewing, dialogue, and exchange rather than awards.

Practical notes:

Please submit a secure online screener and avoid changing the link or password after submission. If something needs updating, just let us know.
By submitting your film, you confirm that you hold the rights to the work (or have permission to submit it).
Films should be presented with their original soundtrack. Works not originally in English must include English subtitles.
Due to limited resources, Evolving Screendance Gotland does not offer screening fees for films shown as part of the workshop’s public screening program.

Deadlines & selection:

The submission deadline is March 22, 2026.
We aim to notify all filmmakers of our decisions by the end of March.

If your film is selected, we’ll ask for a final screening version no later than May 1, 2026. Any costs related to creating the screening copy are handled by the filmmaker.

The workshop blends conceptual discussion with hands-on exploration. Participants will work in small interdisciplinary groups, engaging in labs that merge choreography, camera, sound and post-production — with access to Visby’s atmospheric locations, from the old city ruins and cobbled alleyways to the Baltic shoreline and botanical gardens, together with The Sea's cinematographer-editor Paul Wu.

Guest contributor is Ami Skånberg, acclaimed Swedish choreographer, filmmaker, and researcher, who will give a talk on Screendance Today and her own artistic journey bridging dance, ritual, and screen practice.

Throughout the week, participants will explore embodiment, collaboration, and authorship through both practice and reflection, guided by individual mentoring and group discussions.

The experience culminates in the Screendance Gotland Festival on Saturday, May 23, held at Folkets Bio Betty cinema in Visby — a public event featuring screenings of the participants’ own films, artist talks, and a closing panel on The Future of Screendance.

Creative Team

Douglas Rosenberg - Director, Artist, and Leading Scholar in Screendance

Douglas Rosenberg is the director of the award-winning screendance feature The Sea, filmed on Fårö/Gotland and currently touring international festivals. He is also a major voice in the field of dance film, having authored several foundational books, including Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image (2012), The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies (2016)—recipient of the Oscar G. Brockett Book Prize—and Staring at the Sky: Essays on Art and Culture (2024). Rosenberg is the Vilas Distinguished Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is an artist and a theorist working with performance, video, installation whose work has been exhibited internationally for over 30 years in museums, festivals, galleries and elsewhere. He is a founding editor of The International Journal of Screendance and his work has been supported by numerous grants and awards including, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Soros Foundation, the MAP Fund in New York and the James D. Phelan Art Award in Video. He is most recently the recipient of the Creative Arts Award. Recent exhibitions and screenings of his films include Dance Film Festival, Prague, Berlin Kiez Film Festival (Best Feature Film), and Choreoscope-Barcelona Dance Film Festival. His most recent feature-length film, The Sea, shot on the Island of Fårö in Sweden is currently screening at film festivals internationally and for which he is the recipient of the KNOWBOX Dance Film Festival's Visionary Award. Rosenberg served for more than a decade as Director of the American Dance Festival’s video archival program and was the founding director of ADF’s International Festival of Screendance.

Creative team

Paul Wu

Paul Wu has called Gotland home since 2019. A former professional dancer with a decade-long career, he later transitioned into journalism and filmmaking. As a producer-director, cinematographer and editor, he has created numerous dance films and documentaries. Paul was the director of photography on The Sea.

Ami Skånberg

Ami Skånberg, PhD in Dance from University of Roehampton, is a performer, choreographer, filmmaker and teacher. She is the current Head of the Master’s programme in Contemporary Dance Education at the Stockholm University of the Arts, and also works at Academy of Music and Drama at University of Gothenburg. Her 90 min solo performance A Particular Act of Survival received a performing arts award at Scenkonstgalan in Sweden in 2015.

About The Sea

The Sea is a black-and-white feature film directed by Douglas Rosenberg, filmed entirely on location along the Baltic Sea. Inspired by the stark, elemental landscapes of Ingmar Bergman’s Fårö, the film unfolds as a quiet meditation on aging, masculinity, and the bonds that form between men later in life.

Since its premiere, The Sea has screened extensively at international screendance festivals across the world, where it has been met with strong critical response and deeply engaged audiences. The film has been selected by leading screendance and arthouse festivals and has sparked conversations around aging, male vulnerability, and the expressive potential of the moving body on screen. Repeatedly described as meditative, emotionally resonant, and visually striking, The Sea has established itself as a significant contemporary work within the field of screendance and experimental cinema.

Cast:
Jarck Benschop / David Dorfman / Rolf Engström / Lars Eskilsson / Bengt Hesselberg / Henrik Krogh / Mikael Larsson / Olof Nellgård / Lars Osterman / Lasse Pettersson / Douglas Rosenberg / Lasse Siggelin / Björn Thudén / Benno Voorham / Paul Wu

Producer: Andreas Nordblom
Director: Douglas Rosenberg
Director of Photography: Paul Wu
Sound Engineer: Björn van Weiden
Choreography: Benno Voorham, David Dorfman, Douglas Rosenberg, and the performers
Original Music: David Dorfman, Mikael Larsson

Apply now by sending us an e-mail.

More than a workshop, Evolving Screendance Gotland is a meeting place for artists redefining the relationship between movement, camera, and place — an invitation to shape the next steps in the art of screendance.