Herräng Dance Camp Looks to Move Forward

Copied from Herräng Dance Camp Facebook Official Page 6/4/22

Dear dancers,

We are taking the massive response that emanates from our not-so-well-thought-through post earlier this week very seriously. We understand also that the reaction to this post is linked to so many more underlying problematic issues around Herräng Dance Camp. We deeply apologize for taking so long recognizing the problems and start the work towards the change that, we now know, is much needed. We have decided to start a completely new era for how Herräng Dance Camp will work from now on. The issues we must work on are deeper than a performance that happened on stage or the podcast, we know. Our approach will therefore not be a series of reactions to a series of incidents - it needs to be a much wider and over-grasping one.

We know comments have been shared, even with us directly and not just online, we know that conversations have happened and that some did not happen because we declined them. We are sorry we haven't done our job properly and listened to you as we should nor taken several of the issues as seriously as we should have. This changes now. We can see that we have much understanding as well as learning to do and we apologize not only for taking so long, but also for not understanding better. We have already started reaching out, and will continue to do so in the coming days, to people with much more knowledge than us who can hopefully give a better direction and speed up the needed changes.

Based on the feedback, we will of course revise the entire organization, our culture and core values to make sure everyone involved with the camp understands and supports the new direction. That goes especially for the board, because honestly, our organization and people that have been working with us, or are working with us now, got it a long time ago. It is us who have been stuck in old ways of thinking.

We can see that we have nurtured a culture of trying to silence uncomfortable conversations by not taking part in them! This has been going on for too long and gone too far - we see it now and we deeply apologize for it. We understand that this will not be fixed in a short time. It might take years before the camp meets the community’s needs, but the work starts now.

We see that the path ahead of us is long and we definitely understand that many of you will not accept or support this late reaction and late change of direction. At the same time, we have started self-reflecting months ago and we will do our best to share our learnings on how we can be part of contributing to the change - even if it comes too late. It will be a challenging process and we prepare to hear a lot of criticisms that have built up over the years since we have not answered and/or dealt with them properly. We have hurt many of you with ignorance and by not listening or acting well enough. We intend to listen without trying to explain, defend or justify ourselves - Just listen, reflect, then involve people with more experience than us on every topic and work out a new platform that people feel more safe and comfortable with. We will not be able to find all the appropriate solutions at once, but we can for sure do better by starting to actively listen and plan for big changes ahead.

We know we cannot do it on our own and that is why as said above, we will rely on more knowledgeable people to guide us. We will also be open to all your input.

I, Daniel Heedman, will be present at camp 2022 during the first week (July 9-15) and will be available at announced times for anyone with input, recommendations or suggestions. Or to just listen to you. Marie Sörqvist will also be present during all three camp weeks. To connect outside the camp and for those not present, we will find a solution to how HDC can collect your feedback.

We are very sorry for the time it has taken us to start this journey we have ahead of us. We would especially like to publicly apologize to Felix and all participants in the time-machine clip for not treating you, the era or the culture with more respect. We have much to learn. We are deeply sorry.

We realize it is a long way to gain your trust now that it is broken, and from some, we might never have it back, but we are ready to relentlessly work on it, starting right now.

Yours sincerely

Daniel Heedman

Chairman of the Board

Herräng Dance Camp