about RIVA
RIVA is the first contemporary dance company in the Faroe Islands.
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Our goal is to create more work opportunities for dance artists in and from the Faroe Islands, to contribute to the development of the dance environment on the islands and create high quality dance performances. In addition, we see it as our responsibility to spread more and better knowledge about dance in a professional context and as an art form and make dance a possible career path for future generations.
We strive to ensure that dance as an art form gets an equal amount of respect as its creative counterparts within the field, and make dance more accessible and relevant to the Faroese public, both as audience and participants. We wish to bring dance to the general public and create a dance community that is inclusive and welcoming to all.
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RIVA is focused on creating connections and build bridges across borders and establishing meaningful partnerships. Since RIVA's debut we have built a network of Nordic and international dance artists and organisations, with the intention to learn, collaborate and gain valuable knowledge in support of our goal of continuously developing the dance environment in the Faroe Islands.
In addition, RIVA is actively looking for ways to collaborate with a variety of exciting artists, creating cross-disciplinary collaborations and performances and bringing artists from different fields together. Thus strengthening the artistic community as a whole and creating more possibilities for artists to work together in the Faroe Islands.
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RIVA has been supported by: Nordic Culture Point, The Farose Ministry of Foreign and Cultural Affairs, Mentanargrunnur Landsins, the Nordic House, Loftbrúgv, the Faroese Folk High School, Runavík Municipality, Tórshavn Municipality and Atlantic Airways.
the team
Rúna Volmarsóttir and Rannvá Guðrunardóttir Niclasen decided in October 2019 to set up a contemporary dance company based in the Faroe Islands, in order to bring together our professional dancers and give them more work opportunities within dance both in the Faroe Islands and abroad.
After our debut residency in August 2021, Vár Bech Árting has taken on the role of artistic director, alongside Rannvá Guðrunardóttir Niclasen.
why riva?
The idea behind the name “RIVA”, which translates into crack/crevice, came from our concept to tell stories through choreography and movement, specifically stories with a Faroese or Nordic background, that each choreographic work is a crack for the audience to look through and get a glimpse of Faroese/Nordic history, art and culture in a distinct way.