Hans Van Manen
To celebrate the 75th birthday of master choreographer Hans van Manen, the Dutch National Ballet presented the Hans van Manen Festival at Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam in September. Twenty-five works from his impressive oeuvre were performed not only by his own company, the Dutch National Ballet, but also by the Netherlands Dance Theater, Introdans and five international companies. There were six programs in all.
Van Manen has been extremely important for the development of Dutch dance, as a choreographer and artistic director of both Dutch National Ballet and NDT. Like Jirí Kylián, he fuses classical and modern dance technique. His ballets appear light, athletic and glamorous. They are full of speed and intense partnering. Because of the works’ clarity and their lack of sentimentality, he has been called the “Mondriaan of the Dance” and “the maestro of simplicity.”
Van Manen created Two Pieces for HET for Sofiane Sylve in 1997. At the festival’s gala opening, she returned to dance this challenging duet with Alexander Zhembrovkyy. The ballet starts with speed, followed by an adagio—an extreme adjustment that the two performed with unrivaled ease.
All the other ballets, including some from the ’70s, were danced by new casts, which was very exciting. Igone de Jongh danced on sky-high heels with Zhembrovkyy in the daring duet Twilight. In Sarcasme she performed with lively elegance, straddle-legged on her toe shoes and looking at her partner, Artem Yachmennikov, with an attitude of boredom. Lightly and humorously he turned around her, until she put her hand on his crotch as a test of strength and jumped on him. His reaction, stern but then laughing, made the statement.
Germany was strongly represented with three companies. The Bavarian State Opera Ballet performed Five Tangos to live accompaniment by Sexteto Canyengue. Judith Turos and Ivan Liska, the company’s artistic director, both danced The Old Man and Me as if the ballet had been created for them.
The men of San Francisco Ballet deserve high compliments for dancing Grosse Fugue with verve. The female dancers experienced more difficulty with the arm movements in this demanding composition.
Two dancers from the Kirov Ballet performed van Manen’s very classical Trois Gnossiennes with refinement but were too modest. This duet needed more flair.
NDT II received huge applause for its virtuosity in Simple Things. The flexibility and diversity of these dancers, who twisted with staggering speed, were remarkable. Equal in beauty, and an audience favorite, was the ballet Solo, featuring three men from Dutch National Ballet who performed to an especially fast recording of Beethoven and Bach.
At the gala evening the mayor of Amsterdam decorated van Manen with the highest royal award in the presence of Queen Beatrix and the future Queen Maxima.
Helma Klooss is a freelance writer and initiates dance performances along the Dutch coastline (www.beachdance.eu).
