Kim van der Put

I don't have an outlined, set career plan; I'll see what the future holds.

 comes, she says, from a tight-knit and warm nest. Her mother, of Javanese descent, is always there for the family - "which I loved" - and her three older brothers, Rafael, Roel and Richard, are still very important to her. Kim is the only one of the four children who, having now moved to Bodegraven, goes to ballet. Actually without realizing it properly, she ended up shortly thereafter in the orientation class of the National Ballet Academy and then - because school and dance studios there are in the same building - auditioned at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. "I liked dancing, but never had the dream of becoming a dancer," Laughing: "At the conservatory, I really only wanted to be accepted so as not to be rejected."

Totally going along with the vision of a creator, I love that

More fun than ballet

This changes when she discovers, to her delight, that her classmates are "just like me". "I had a fantastic time in The Hague, it was so much fun growing up together and working towards the same goal. Our friendship still lasts and I'm still in touch with some of the teachers.'

Totally unexpectedly, she ended up as an intern at Introdans when she was nineteen. "The new school year had just started, and after one day I was asked as an understudy in Arnhem. At the time I was still in doubt myself whether I wanted to go in the contemporary or classical direction, but once at Introdans I discovered that I liked this more than ballet after all." Besides: all the opportunities she got there to dance solos and duets, she would never have got at a major classical ballet company. "I have had the opportunity to work with so many fantastic choreographers, with greats like Jiří Kylián and Mauro Bigonzetti. Being totally immersed in a creator's vision, completely immersing yourself in their world for a few weeks, I've always loved that."

'Not for a day now!'

As a dancer, she wants to be as pure and natural as possible. "I don't like the manufactured, hiding behind facades. Also as a person I try to be as honest and sincere as possible, to others, but also to myself. I strive to do things only because I want to, not because others think I should do something. Offstage I am quite introverted, and in that I also want to be honest with myself. I love to do everything and experience everything, and I have really had to learn to say, "Not now, for a day"

Photography: Khalid Amakran | Interview: Astrid van Leeuwen