Nieuwe Nederlandse dans: Dance from The Lowlands in Philadelphia On the Dutch hothouse and the blossoming of dance by Lisa Kraus

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Living in Holland I learned that the flower auction in Aalsmeer is the primary one in the world. Located conveniently near Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport and run with the efficiency developed over several hundred years of smart merchandising by the Dutch, this auction in a country of just 16 million people has turned Aalsmeer into the commercial flower hub of the world. Not only is there an abundance of flowers grown on Dutch soil (or in an ultramodern twist, not even touching soil), but flowers grown in South America might be auctioned in Aalsmeer before making their way back across the ocean to a Philadelphia flower stall.

For dance, the Netherlands provides a crossroads too. With a generous system of subsidies and support mechanisms for both the development and touring of dance, it has attracted artists from other countries eager to work in an environment that values artists as professionals, and supports technical excellence, high production values, and fresh thinking. The Netherlands has made a significant investment recently in creating relationships with international presenters to foster tours by Dutch groups. [note 1] Philadelphia was the beneficiary of this cultural outlay through Nieuwe Nederlandse dans: Dance from The Lowlands in Philadelphia where four groups working at different strata of the Dutch dance ecosystem came to teach, develop, show, and discuss their work between June and December 2006. [note 2]

Events ranged from a long, slow simmer to a quick burst.  Working with a group of four Philadelphia dancers over six weeks, Jérôme Meyer and Isabelle Chaffaud developed Seed, a new piece that they showed at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival along with an excerpt from their duet Corps á Corps. Anouk van Dijk's dance company anoukvandijk dc gave a week of classes and a talk, and showed an excerpt from van Dijk's STAU. Emio Greco | PC was presented as a featured international dance company in the 2006 Live Arts Festival, performing Hell. And Dylan Newcomb danced his solo Burn and gave a two-day workshop.

As an "embedded journalist" for all of Nieuwe Nederlandse dans, I reflected on each of these dance offerings and on the conditions in which it was created—the hothouse that Holland has built for dance. And being American, it was inevitable for me to contrast those nurturing conditions with the more Spartan ones in which American dance artists must function.