A Dutch Perspective on American Dance A presentation by Cees de Bever, Director for Performing Arts, Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York

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(NOTE: These comments were originally offered in the panel "International Perspectives on American Dance," as part of the 2007 Association for Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) Dance Forum in New York City at the New York Hilton and Towers, January 19, 2007.)

I am delighted to be on this panel and hope I will have at least one or two things to say that might be valuable for this discussion. I find myself a bit of an "odd man out" among this company. I feel the more valuable input for this conversation will probably need to come from presenters, agents, and artists, the folks on the ground who are actually doing the work. Because of that I have asked some Dutch presenters for their opinions on what they think about American dance. At the end of this presentation, I will read some notes and thoughts that Simon Dove, the director of the international contemporary dance festival Springdance, has sent me about American dance.

But for now, let me share some of my observations and some of the comments I have heard over the years, after which I will suggest one course of action that might help generate more excitement for American dance.

First I'd like to address some of the questions that we as speakers were asked to review:

• When you watch American dance, what are your overall impressions?
• How do you respond to it?
• What characteristics/themes/aesthetic values does American dance share with dance in your country or region and what characteristics/themes/aesthetic values are new or different to you?

What I have heard from those around me is the following:

• Production values are not so high
• Design and esthetics are often an afterthought
• Dancers are not so strong, not so well trained
• No money is available to make international exchange possible

These mirror some of the comments I have received from American presenters going to the Netherlands who have constantly commented on the high production values and strong dancers there.

I personally find it hard to generalize or to make sweeping statements about American dance, in which I see a lot of diversity. There is so much work being produced in the US that I find it hard to label dance as being typically American or that all American dance shares the same characteristics, themes, and esthetic values. There is a lot of excellent dance on many different levels and there is a lot of...well...not-so-excellent dance.

It is important first to identify which dance companies are suitable for "export," and their numbers are substantial. Though it may be the perception of many in this room that little US work goes abroad, I know of a lot of American dance companies that have toured in the Netherlands and/or Europe in recent years, or are about to tour. Allow me for a moment to drop some names here:

• Large and/or established companies, including Mark Morris, Merce Cunningham, Hubbard Street, Joffrey Ballet, and Bill T. Jones;
• Midsize and/or midcareer companies, including Streb, Momix, Pilobulus, Ron K. Brown, Rennie Harris, and Shen Wei;
• Small, young and/or contemporary dance companies, including Big Dance Theater, John Jasperse, Sarah Michelson, Tere O'Connor, Wally Cardona, Jennifer Monson, Jeremy Wade, Michael Guiterrez, Ann Liv Young, and Marc Bamuthi Joseph.

And then there are of course American choreographers such as Meg Stuart and William Forsythe who are doing very well in Europe. Plus, there are another handful of American choreographers who are living and working in Holland who are also doing relatively well.

Looking at the names of the companies I just mentioned, one can see that there is a wide range of American dance companies that travels abroad. And similar to the US, there are a lot of different kinds of presenters in the Netherlands and Europe, with different tastes and different audiences. What works for one presenter doesn't necessarily work for another; and some presenters are looking for truly unique work and for choreographers with very distinct voices. If this is a comfort for Americans to hear, there are many Dutch companies that do excellent work, get great reviews in the Dutch press, and attract substantial audiences, but hardly ever travel abroad. The reason for this is that their work is not truly unique—the company might be unique in the Netherlands, but one or more similar American dance companies already exist, making it redundant for an American presenter to book that particular company. The same dynamic happens the other way around.

In the process of helping to strengthen international relationships, the art is not just to help find the right matches between artists and presenters, but also between artists and between presenters. There are many different opportunities for American dance companies to engage in international exchange, and there are many niches to tap into. However, and this is essential, one needs hard American dollars to make this possible. A big wallet is better than a small wallet, but even with limited resources and with small steps, I think there is a lot that can be done to help change the perceptions or, if you will, the misperceptions about American dance.