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Americans abroad: performing overseas is more than an adventure. For these dancers, it means personal, artistic, and financial breaks.

Article Excerpt
To launch her career, Isadora Duncan sailed for Europe in search of audiences who could appreciate her work and producers who could enable her to do it. In Paris she encountered Loie Fuller, another expatriate who had preceded her by a decade. Josephine Baker would become the toast of Paris not long after. American dance artists have continued to gravitate toward Europe for some of the same reasons they did at the turn of the last century: sophisticated audiences, presenters with deep pockets, and governments with a high priority on arts and culture.

Over the years, highly visible Americans have fanned out across Europe. In France there's the former Nikolais soloist Carolyn Carlson and early Robert Wilson collaborator Andy de Groat. In Germany the Hamburg Ballet is headed by John Neumeier; William Forsythe's new company is based in both Frankfurt and Dresden; and Amanda Miller has recently relocated from Freiburg to Cologne. In Belgium there's Meg Stuart and her company Damaged Goods. These artists have had a strong influence on the development of dance in Europe.

Today lesser known Americans have flocked to cities from Amsterdam to Zurich. They fill the ranks of state-subsidized companies or make their way as creators in a climate that supports their creative output.

Banning Roberts had a wish list that might sound familiar to many young...

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