For the last decade, a debate has been going on in the performance arts world, including dance, on the role of Art in relation to Society. Many of the arguments come from two opposite camps using different theoretical notions. On the one hand there are the supporters of ‘the autonomy’ of the Arts. On the other hand the emphasis is laid on the embedment of Art into Society such as ‘community arts’, ‘art in public space’, ‘environmental art’.

The discussion is urgent in many parts of the world. The reason of its urgency is connected with its economic importance. Throughout the world, regional centers are becoming the focal points of economic development and political power. Amongst many, Richard Florida has connected those leading world centers with the presence of an active and open art scene. Artists are invited to participate and create a creative city environment where a new form of social cohesion can blossom, forebode of economic wealth and prosperity. Many environmental and community arts projects developed in such circumstances.

Some critics and artists see this development as a dangerous evolution. They fear that the specific aesthetic excellence of the arts will be jeopardized and the unique status of the arts will finally disappear. Defenders of the autonomy of art fear that the purity of artistic research that was possible within modern and postmodern art will be lost. Other critics and artists hail the new times, they see new possibilities to overcome the abyss between the artist and the audience that is so characteristic for high art since the times of modernism.

The current situation poses many interesting questions on the dance world. How sensible is the notion: Everybody can dance? What do we gain and/or lose when the dance world embraces the community? What kind of distance (if any) should the art world keep towards the political and economic worlds? Is there an insurmountable abyss between autonomous and community directed art?