New Baltic Dance

New Baltic Dance is the largest contemporary dance festival in the Baltic Region! It invites audiences and professionals to join for inspiring labs and discussions and explore and shape the future of contemporary dance together. 

The international contemporary dance festival New Baltic Dance (NBD) will take place for the 31st time from February 8 to March 4, 2027, in Vilnius, opening the NBD Season 31. Shifting its usual spring dates to late winter, the festival will welcome audiences with the heat, energy, and vitality generated by the dancing body.

The programme is connected by unfiltered intimacy - born from effort, exhaustion, and being in one another’s presence. The festival invites viewers closer to what remains pure when movement reaches exhaustion and a comfortable distance no longer suffices for openness. Gentleness and strength, desire and vulnerability, personal memory and shared joy will meet on stage. Through these experiences, NBD continues the core question that has guided the festival for years: what transforms individual bodies into a community?

Opening: February 8 – 10 “DUB”. The festival will open with the performance “DUB”, in which choreographer Amala Dianor brings together young dancers for a collaborative movement experiment. Here, different dance languages are adopted, altered, and reconnected to explore ways of moving together while remaining true to oneself.

Closing: March 3 – 4 “REMACHINE”. From March 3 to 4, the festival will conclude with “REMACHINE” by choreographer Jefta van Dinther, a creator familiar to Lithuanian audiences. Combining dance and voice in collaboration with composer Anna von Hausswolff, the piece explores the human relationship with a technology-driven environment, the boundaries of the body, and the constant drive to push forward.

The opportunity to present the long-awaited “REMACHINE” became one of the main reasons for hosting the festival earlier in the year. The calendar was also adjusted due to upcoming events in Vilnius marking Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This time, the final festival performances will welcome the arrival of spring.

Organized since 1997, NBD presents international contemporary dance alongside works by Lithuanian creators, bringing together artists, professionals, and audiences. Gathering thousands of visitors each year, the festival offers an opportunity to explore diverse dance directions, discover new names, and encounter world-renowned artists. For three decades, its programme has been guided by key questions: where does the edge of dance lie today, how does the body transcend boundaries, and what art forms does the present demand?

History of the Festival: 250 companies, 35 countries, 470+ dance performances. Over its first three decades, NBD has presented more than 250 companies from 35 countries and over 470 dance performances. The festival programme has featured works by Dimitris Papaioannou, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Eun-Me Ahn, Oona Doherty, Catherine Gaudet, Jefta van Dinther, Marco da Silva Ferreira, and many others. Lithuanian audiences have experienced performances by Ballet National de Marseille, Nederlands Dans Theater II, Cloud Gate, Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Cullberg, and numerous other companies.

Festival Organizer: Lithuanian Dance CentreFestival Directors: Audronis Imbrasas Director (1997–2016); Gintarė Masteikaitė Director since 2017.