Hans van Manen Festival

On 24 June it is possible to visit HF x Lofi x CTM after this performance.

Dance in Close-Up: Hans van Manen seen by Erwin Olaf

Simultaneously with the Hans van Manen Festival, the photo exhibition Dance in Close-Up: Hans van Manen seen by Erwin Olaf will be on show at Galerie Ron Mandos. more information

Background

Apart from the Dutch premiere of Ballett am Rhein’s Dances with Piano, the Vienna State Ballet is also featured with an early Van Manen piece: Four Schumann Pieces, originally made for the British Royal Ballet. Nederlands Dans Theater will present an early and a later Van Manen: NDT 1 will dance its ground-breaking Situation from 1970; NDT 2 shines in Simple Things.

Colourful evergreens

Introdans and the Junior Company will provide a colourful note with Polish Pieces and In the Future respectively, two evergreens in which the colourful costumes of Van Manen’s regular designer Keso Dekker play an important role. The Dutch National Ballet will dance no less than nine ballets from the master choreographer. From early work like Metaforen to internationally successful classics like Grosse Fuge, Adagio Hammerklavier and 5 Tangos. But also later choreographies like Concertante, Two Pieces for HET and Frank Bridge Variations.

Lifetime achievement award

Hans van Manen was given the VSCD Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. From the jury report:

‘For over sixty years, Van Manen has made ground-breaking choreographies through which he stimulated the development of the art of dance both in the Netherlands and internationally.

He started dancing in 1951 and made his first ballet Feestgericht in 1957, which was awarded the Dutch National Prize for Choreography. Many more choreographies and awards would follow. With his vast and varied oeuvre of around a hundred and fifty works, three new ballets per year on average (which he created for the Dutch National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater, among others), Van Manen has created a distinctive style that has inspired many dancers and choreographers and has enriched conceptions about what dance is and can be.

Hans van Manen regularly redefines gender roles in his work and has played a part in the emancipation of classical ballet. Adagio Hammerklavier from 1973 is one of Van Manen’s masterpieces about which Vrij Nederland at the time wrote: ‘A major event in Dutch art and the greatest in dance from the Netherlands. To overlook this, or not to go have a look at the least, is detrimental to the soul.’ This choreography also shows Van Manen’s enormous musicality. He not only shows audiences dance but has them experience the music in a new way.

His influence is indelible. He is also called the “Mondriaan of dance, a master of simplicity” because of his high degree of abstraction and formal consistency. His work goes back to the essence of what dance is: simplicity, powerful and pure, an art form that touches the soul. Hans van Manen has brought this love to the stage with all his passion and efforts, and often also with a sense of humour. Everyone will recognise the clear long lines being broken, like a thunderstorm on a sunny day, as the work of this true master choreographer.’