‘I now create, share and inspire on a different stage’

As a student, Dorottya Kiss (37) was a regular feature in Erasmus Magazine. She was doing two masters (Art and Cultural Studies and Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship) at the same time, whilst running her own dance company with which she took part in television programmes like Holland’s Got Talent and Everybody Dance Now. That meant that she often studied at night, she told us five years ago. In the summer of 2016, she moved back to Hungary, where she and her three dogs live in a small village in the mountains. “I missed the countryside and the peace, and after twenty years I wanted to give something back to my country.”

However, she’s not taking things easy. Most weeks, she flies to and from the Netherlands to lecture in General Cultural Studies and at IBCoM and to give corporate training courses. When she’s in Hungary, she’s writing two books and is setting up a retreat for artists which will facilitate artistic, scientific and entrepreneurial development.

It sounds as if Kiss is still doing a thousand things at the same time. But she doesn’t think so. “Everything I do is related to art, science and entrepreneurship. And that was the case during my studies, only now I’ve learned to find a healthier balance between work and relaxation.”

Her dance company de KISS moves, which combined classical ballet, modern dance, urban and folk dancing to dubstep, house, hiphop, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky in a kind of ultimate fusion, is no longer touring the theatres. However, the company celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2015 and 2016 with the performance WHY are YOU?, which was performed in seventy Dutch theatres.

Kiss was tired of the art world. “It’s very political and people aren’t willing to help each other much. We had lots of shows and good audiences, but it was really difficult to get funding. We were too small for the big subsidy providers and too big for the small ones.” So she took de KISS moves to talent shows on television where she performed her version of The Nutcracker in combination with dubstep, in the hope of attracting new financiers at a time when significant cuts were being made in art and culture. “Thanks to our television performances, we could get bigger audiences and sell more shows. But sadly, it didn’t generate extra sponsoring.”

“I’d already twice invested my own money and my mother’s inheritance. There comes a time when you can’t do it anymore. But I’m very proud that we kept going for nearly eleven years.” And Kiss feels that she succeeded with her mission, to give fusion a prominent place in the Dutch dance world. “When we started blending those styles in 2005, it was fairly new in Europe. Now many dance companies are experimenting with it.”

Kiss still dances, but not on stage. She misses it though. “A dancer dies twice. Once when she stops dancing and again when she dies.” The fulfilment that she used to get from creating, performing for an audience, standing ovations and feedback, she now gets from writing, consultancy, giving lectures, yoga and meditation. “I still create, share and inspire, just on a different stage.”