Dansbana! is an invitation to dance and to use urban space in new ways

Dansbana! is an organization founded by the Swedish architects Anna Fridolin, Anna Pang, and Teres Selberg, who work on designing public spaces for dance and movement where everyone can feel welcome: 

“We started our practice as a response to inequalities in the use of public spaces, with the ambition of creating permanent, site-specific, joyful installations together with young girls and dancers. The world is divided, but dance has a unifying power. With Dansbana! Amos Rex, we want to invite people to gather and dance within an animated natural environment in the middle of the magical Helsinki summer.” 

Participating is simple: bring your phone and play your own music through the Bluetooth speakers, spontaneously or by booking. Through their own phones, participants can choose the music themselves and influence the experience.  

“Dansbana! is a joyful work that blends architecture, urban planning, and technology, while raising important questions about how we build cities today. The three architects behind the project create spaces for dance and self-expression for diverse social groups. As the city centre becomes less about retail and more about culture, this way of thinking becomes ever more important”, says museum director Kieran Long. 

Dansbana! continues the Swedish-Finnish tradition of open-air dance pavilions (known in Finnish as lavatanssit and in Swedish as dansbana), which have long served as important meeting places for dance, community, and even romance.  

During June and August, Amos Rex will host eleven dance performances and three traditional dance pavilion events. Three plant-like figures keep you company on the dance floor that sparkles like a forest lake in the landscape between the Amos Rex mounds.  

Dansbana! continues Amos Rex’s series of public artworks presented among the mounds of Lasipalatsi Square. Last year, Yinka Ilori’s installation Transparent Happiness was on view on the square, and in the summer of 2023 city residents enjoyed Kim Simonsson’s green Moss Giants. 

Since 2015, the Dansbana! architects have created a number of site-specific dance floors in Sweden, as well as in Istanbul and Ohio. Dansbana! Amos Rex is the first one they have created in Finland. 

Venues by the organization: Dansbana!Rosa torget, Malmö 2025, Hjärtats källa – Dansbana! Fröslunda 2025, Dansbana! Akron – public dance floor for all, Ohio 2022,  Dansbana! ArkDes/Liljeholmen 2018/2021, Dansbana! Kalamis, Istanbul, 2020, Dansbana! Södertälje 2018 and Dansbana!Vårby gård 2016. 

Dansbana! Amos Rex 12 June –4 October 2026, Lasipalatsi Square