ABSTRACT
Several years ago, I accepted an invitation to attend a contemporary dance festival in Europe. On this trip I would meet and talk with many artists, choreographers and artistic directors, primarily working in Europe with what I perceived to be a distinctly European aesthetic. I hoped this experience would help me find a better way to approach and appreciate this particular type of dance. It did not quite work out that way. In general, I found too many of the performances to be self indulgent, opaque and frequently poorly performed. I started leaving performances before they ended, something I try never to do. I was frustrated with the experience and began to think that perhaps this was just not performance work that would ever speak to me.
