Estonia’s beloved Dance Celebration returns not just as a performance, but as a national family reunion – bringing together 11,000 dancers in a vibrant expression of regional identity, tradition and belonging.
From 2 to 4 July, nearly 11,000 dancers will sweep onto the grounds of Tallinn’s Kalev Central Stadium in a celebration that is equal parts choreography and collective memory. This year marks the XXI Dance Celebration, part of the broader XXVIII Song and Dance Celebration, which altogether brings together more than 41,000 performers in one of Estonia’s most powerful expressions of culture and unity.
A call to gather
But while the numbers impress, it is the spirit – iseoma, or “authentically ours” – that defines this year’s dance celebration. A word that defies neat translation, iseoma is both deeply personal and distinctly communal. It speaks of belonging, identity, and of that which cannot be imitated.
This year, the dance celebration becomes a kind of great Estonian family reunion – a gathering of kin in spirit and step.
The dramaturg behind the festival, Laura Võigemast, sets the tone with a lyrical invitation:
“So pack your bundles and bugles, combs and costumes, hopes and heartbreaks, and come with full heart and soul to the gathering at the centre of it all.”
The concept is both poetic and political. In a world of fragmentation, Estonia’s Dance Celebration doubles down on connection – to place, to people, to memory. It is not just an event. It is a statement of identity.
Estonia in eight rhythms
For the first time in decades, the dance programme has been designed around eight distinct cultural regions – including Põhjarannik (the North Coast), Kagukant (the Southeast), Tartu-Voore, and the capital, Tallinn – each bringing its own flavour to the national stage.
The idea was born from lead director Helena-Mariana Reimann’s desire to make this year’s celebration not just a show of unity, but of diversity-within-unity. Each region’s creative team developed its own choreography, often drawing from local steps, music, and temperament, making this year’s programme the most decentralised and locally rooted in recent history.
From coastal rhythms to forest village steps, every corner of Estonia is present – not as a single voice, but as a polyphony of movement.
What binds it together? The storyline. Across three performances, the dancers enact one shared narrative: a family reunion that mirrors the real-life gathering unfolding on the dancefield.
Authentically ours
Dance groups from outside Estonia will also take part, bringing an international flavour that honours the Estonian diaspora. Meanwhile, gymnastics and women’s groups will add new visual and emotional layers to the performance – proof that the Dance Celebration continues to evolve while keeping its heart intact.
While the Dance Celebration is part of the wider festival, the emphasis here is firmly on movement. But it is not movement for movement’s sake. These are steps learned over months – often years – passed down through generations, animated by emotion, memory, and a sense of place.
As Võigemast notes, every participant brings something with them – not just costumes and props, but also “hopes and heartbreaks.” And the stage becomes a space where those private stories move in synchrony.
Though rooted in age-old tradition – this is the 21st time the national Dance Celebration has taken place – this year’s festival is anything but static. It is bold in structure, intimate in spirit, and brimming with the vibrant complexity of what it means to be Estonian.
And when 11,000 of them move as one, the message is unmistakable: We are many. We are one. We are authentically ours.
