Dutch Dance Days show artistic challenge only on fringes of programme

The first weekend of October saw the Netherlands Dance Days (NDD) take place in Maastricht. As Ruben Brugman said reported, important prizes for the dance world are awarded there. But the Dance Days seem mainly intended to promote Dutch dance, more than being a critical evaluation or artistic boost.

During the Dance Days, no snappy speech on the State of Dance as at the Theatre festival. This festival especially offers producers and policy officials, (international) programmers and dance artists an excellent opportunity to network in a burgundian atmosphere. In addition, NDD is committed to engaging a wider audience with the current state of affairs in Dutch dance. "Dance in all its definitions participates," the website.

Engaging wider audiences... in what?

However, this horizontal approach typical of the polder has for years been translated into a strict hierarchy. During the Gala on Saturday evening, the major companies showcase recently released repertoire and the Swans are awarded. On Friday evening, the middle groups and 'modern' repertoire are honoured, while during the day and night, independent, more experimental or alternative dance productions and projects are programmed on small stages scattered throughout the city.

This division according to financial capacity and position on the subsidy ladder ensures that little comes of the intention to introduce a wider audience to current artistic developments. Not that the small theatres do not attract a 'normal' audience, but the big stages and the best time slots are reserved for productions that are already touring the country and often have little to offer in terms of artistic challenge. The evenings in the main hall are mainly aimed at confirming the status quo.

For me, reason to forgo the big stage altogether this year. After years of enjoying the immersion in aesthetic formulas of companies such as NDT, Nationale Ballet, Scapino, Introdans, Conny Janssen Danst, Ann van den Broek or Club Guy&Roni, I thought it was enough this year. I limited myself to two 'night performances': Senses By Loïc Perela and Ode to the attempt by Jan Martens, about which more tomorrow.

But is there any alternative?

On the other hand, there is not that much alternative Dutch dance repertoire for the big stage. Due to the cutbacks in the production houses and reductions in the flat-floor theatres, the flow to the large stage has become extremely problematic. Choreographers working in the Netherlands are already very focused on the small stage anyway, and not necessarily for artistic reasons. It is in the flat-floor circuit that dance makers such as Ann van den Broek, Guy Weizman and Roni Haver or Nicole Beutler often had to prove themselves for more than a decade with constantly new productions before they were admitted to the larger stages with a wide audience.

Vicious circle

A vicious circle has developed that does not benefit dance and is confirmed in the programming of the Dance Days. Experimentation and new visions barely - or agonisingly slowly - penetrate the established circuit of the major venues, with ICKamsterdam being a major exception. The general public has been served up more or less the same thing for decades. Dance makers with an alternative vision are not challenged or encouraged to develop work on a scale befitting the theatre.

The ancient 1980s division into first, second and third circuits has never gone away in dance. It is an example of ghettoisation: big hall is mainstream - small hall is experimental. If you then keep that up for more than 30 years, and don't dare break through even during your own Dance Days, things must be stagnant.

Where, then?

A 'wide' audience is currently confronted with some dance experiment at only three venues: Julidans, Holland Festival and the Stedelijk Museum. These are established institutions that take their mediating responsibility, both towards audiences and as artists, despite the subsidy woes. Previously, Festival de Internationale Keuze of the Rotterdam Schouwburg also contributed to this, but after the departure of Annemie van Ackere and new cuts in Rotterdam, that festival has not yet regained its pioneering role. Theatres in Breda, Maastricht, Utrecht or Amsterdam also do their best, but there is no structural focus on innovative work.

Traditionally, Springdance in Utrecht was the Dutch festival where inter- and national developments in dance were shown in conjunction. After merging with Festival a/d Werf in Spring, however, new director Rainer Hofmann experienced how difficult it was to motivate contemporary makers in the Netherlands to deliver a large-venue production.

Size matters

Hofmann successfully lobbied for a special subsidy scheme, Size Matters, which gives creators like Nicole Beutler or Jan Martens an extra financial push towards the big stage. Beutler, who with Shirokuro (co-produced by the Holland Festival) previously delivered a highly successful large-hall project, stumbled across an adaptation of her work last May during Spring ECHO for the large auditorium. At the Dutch Dance Days, however, she showed a new adaptation, this time of her performance The Garden. During Spring 2016, both her and Jan Martens will premiere a large-venue performance.

The Dance Days previously provided ICKamsterdam with the opportunity to expand its collaboration with Opera Zuid in The Sopranos premiere. The NDD Sunday afternoon programme at the Vrijthof thus more often contributes to slightly experimental trends in the field.

Prize of the Dutch Dance Days Maastricht

Another element of hope is the Prize of Dutch Dance Days Maastricht, as far as I am concerned the only prize that really matters, with strong nominations this year: Arno Schuitemaker, Amos Ben Tal and Loïc Perela. Perela won. The prize invests in a choreographer's development and shows that development during the next edition of Dance Days. It has given choreographers like Muhanad Rasheed, Erik Kaiel or Giulio D'Anna an important push. But only in one direction: the small hall.

For years, the Dutch subsidy and production system has steered dance makers in their growth to such an extent that those who persevere are often seduced into producing work according to predictable formulas. And then the merchant wins out. Hopefully next year's Dance Days evening programme will also showcase new visions and experimental ideas. And lure the prestige so weighty for dance to the small hall for a change.