I 2025 tildeles midlene en avgangsstudent ved masterstudiet i dans ved Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, som i år markerer sitt 10-årsjubileum.
Stipendet ble delt ut den 12. juni 2025 på Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo og den aller første dansekunstneren som mottar dette stipendet på 250 000,- er avgangsstudent ved masterstudiet i dans ved Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo:
Antonia Harke – gratulerer!
Foto: Marianne Albers / Danseinformasjonen.
Edle Mustad Stiftelse ble etablert ved gavebrev på 10 millioner kroner, den 12. juni 2024. Stiftelsens formål er å gi bidrag til enkeltpersoner eller organisasjoner for å bedre forholdene til norske dansere innen moderne dansekunst og for å gi støtte til utvikling av norsk dans generelt.
Stiftelsen vil gjøre dette på følgende områder:
– Støtte til prosjekter eller enkeltpersoner
– Støtte til organisasjoner, stiftelser eller selskaper som driver prosjekter innenfor formålet, dersom dette anses å være en hensiktsmessig måte å realisere formålet
Les mer om stiftelsen her: www.edlemustadstiftelse.no
Under tildelingen holdt Torunn Robstad, førsteamanuensis og programansvarlig for masterstudiet i dans ved Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, tale om MA-studiet og takket stiftelsen.
Du kan lese talen hennes her:
My name is Torunn Robstad, and I am the Program Director for the Master’s Programme in Dance here at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts – a role I have held since the programme was established in 2015.
When we launched this programme, it was – and still is – the only master’s degree in performing dance in Norway. Since its inception, we have graduated five cohorts, a total of 25 students. And today, it is especially meaningful to say that one of them – from our most recent cohort – has the honour of becoming the very first recipient of a scholarship from the Edle Mustad Foundation.
The Master’s Programme in Dance was created for dancers with a deep passion for embodiment – for those who wish to further develop as both performers and fellow co-makers. This dual focus reflects the complexity that defines the contemporary professional dancer today.
A dancer today is not just an interpreter of someone else’s work. They are co-creators. Many of the works we see today are shaped through close collaboration between choreographer and dancer – through improvisation, movement research, and dialogue. The dancer’s bodily intelligence, experience, and creativity are central to this process.
As a result, artistic ownership is no longer solely in the hands of the choreographer. The dancer plays a vital role in shaping the artistic material – and in many cases, they also initiate and lead their own projects. Many develop their own methods, write, teach, and actively contribute to knowledge production in the field.
In other words, this is not only a physical practice – it is also a reflective one. Dance is not just something we do – it is something we think through and with.
And perhaps most importantly: the body is not merely an aesthetic instrument. It is also a social and political expression. Through dance, we engage with questions of gender, race, ability, environment, and migration. The dancer does not only carry movement – they carry meaning.
Contemporary dance is a demanding field to work in. It is often project-based, with short-term contracts and a high degree of individual responsibility for one’s own artistic development and career. It requires not only talent but initiative, resilience, and the ability to live with uncertainty. It takes flexibility, reflection – and the courage to navigate ever-evolving forms of expression.
That is why it means so much that the Edle Mustad Foundation has chosen to award its very first scholarship to a candidate from this programme. It is an important recognition – not only of the individual dancer, but of the work we do in this education. It affirms the dancer’s role and agency – as an artist, as a thinker, and as an active voice in society.
To the Foundation, I simply want to say: Thank you. This means a great deal.
