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Hans van Manen timeline

Hans van Manen has created over 150 choreographies, including his television ballets. His work is performed by more than 100 dance companies worldwide. This timeline provides an overview of his life and his most significant works. For a complete list of all his choreographies, click here.

1994

1990-1999

1990

Visions Fugitives with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile
Visions Fugitives with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile | Photo: Jorge Fatauros

One masterpiece after another

For Van Manen, the nineties are exceptionally productive years. For Nederlands Dans Theater, he creates one masterpiece after another. The first is Visions Fugitives, with a starring role for two important new Van Manen muses: the beautiful, extremely feminine Fiona Lummis and the impressive, sensual Jean Emile. 

Visions Fugitives with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile Visions Fugitives with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Visions Fugitives with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile | Photo: Jorge Fatauros

Visions Fugitives with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile

One masterpiece after another

For Van Manen, the nineties are exceptionally productive years. For Nederlands Dans Theater, he creates one masterpiece after another. The first is Visions Fugitives, with a starring role for two important new Van Manen muses: the beautiful, extremely feminine Fiona Lummis and the impressive, sensual Jean Emile. 

Lummis says later about the work, “Hans is able to create dynamics and drama simply by putting two people on stage together. The drama comes from the personalities of those people and from the music, as well as from the way Hans pairs up the dancers (..) You ‘hear’ the choreography in the music. The repressed tension of the ballet, the mystery of the first pas de deux, the individual dynamics of each of the three couples, the scene where we run among each other in the dark, as a premonition of what is to come – it all works; it’s all completely logical when you listen to the music.” Although of course, she says, Van Manen also adds ‘that one surprising twist’. “Throughout the ballet, everything seems fine and dandy, and so the ending, where Jean kills me, comes unexpectedly – even for me at first.”

1991

Two with Brigitte Martin and Johan Inger
Two with Brigitte Martin and Johan Inger | Photo: Jorge Fatauros

Awards for ‘ballets for two’

Among the many masterpieces Van Manen creates for Nederlands Dans Theater in this decade are several more ‘ballets for two’. He uses this name deliberately, as he says, “I’ve never made a pas de deux in my life. In a pas de deux, dancers mainly dance their own variations, whereas in a ‘ballet for two’ they have a relationship.” In 1991, Van Manen receives the Sonia Gaskell award from the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts for three of these ‘ballets for two’: Two (1990), Theme (1991) and Andante (1991). For Two, he is also awarded his second Choreography Prize from the Dutch Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors (VSCD), in the same year.

1992

Hans van Manen (wearing his Officer's Order) and Keso Dekker
Hans van Manen (wearing his Officer's Order) and Keso Dekker | Private archive

Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau

On the occasion of his 35th anniversary as a choreographer, in 1992, Van Manen is promoted from Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau to Officer in the same order. 

1993

Fantasía
Fantasía with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile | Photo: Dirk Buwalda

‘Saying twenty millions things with one simple movement’

Van Manen first used music by Johann Sebastian Bach as early as 1972 (for Opus Lemaître), and he continues to do so regularly throughout his career. One of his most beautiful and most successful Bach ballets is undoubtedly Fantasía, created in 1993 for six leading dancers from Nederlands Dans Theater: Fiona Lummis, Sol León, Cora Kroese, Jean Emile, Paul Lightfoot and Jorma Elo. The title is deliberately written with an accent over the ‘i’, says Van Manen, “in order to avoid any confusion with Disney’s Fantasia.” According to Jean Emile, the ballet is about ‘dreaming and saying farewell to dreams’. “It’s about saying goodbye to something you actually don’t want to say goodbye to. But”, he stresses, “Hans never lays it on too thick. He can say twenty million things with just one simple movement.”

Fantasía with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile Fantasía with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Fantasía with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile | Photo: Dirk Buwalda

Fantasía with Fiona Lummis and Jean Emile

‘Saying twenty millions things with one simple movement’

Van Manen first used music by Johann Sebastian Bach as early as 1972 (for Opus Lemaître), and he continues to do so regularly throughout his career. One of his most beautiful and most successful Bach ballets is undoubtedly Fantasía, created in 1993 for six leading dancers from Nederlands Dans Theater: Fiona Lummis, Sol León, Cora Kroese, Jean Emile, Paul Lightfoot and Jorma Elo. The title is deliberately written with an accent over the ‘i’, says Van Manen, “in order to avoid any confusion with Disney’s Fantasia.” According to Jean Emile, the ballet is about ‘dreaming and saying farewell to dreams’. “It’s about saying goodbye to something you actually don’t want to say goodbye to. But”, he stresses, “Hans never lays it on too thick. He can say twenty million things with just one simple movement.”

After the premiere, there are regular comments that Fantasía is supposed to refer to the ballet Adagio Hammerklavier, which he created precisely twenty years earlier. One critic even calls the ballet “Adagio Hammerklavier Revisited”, but Van Manen says, “I put that reference in deliberately, of course. I heard Bach’s music and thought ‘hey, that sounds very much like Hammerklavier; the same notes, the same rhythm and the same reticence. So I thought it would be great fun to quote myself. And then some newspapers wrote, ‘He’s repeating himself’. How stupid! I wasn’t born yesterday!”

Deutscher Tanzpreis
Deutscher Tanzpreis

Deutscher Tanzpreis

For his great influence on the dance world in Germany in the preceding twenty years, Van Manen receives the prestigious Deutscher Tanzpreis in 1993. 

1994

Compositie
Compositie | Photo: Dirk Buwalda

Mondrian of dance (or not)

For the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the painter Piet Mondrian, in 1994, Van Manen creates Compositie, for Nederlands Dans Theater’s Holland Festival programme. In an austere white, grey and black set, with two square tables and four plain cubic stools by each table, eight dancers play an intriguing game of attraction and rejection in beautifully mirrored patterns. The leading German dance critic Jochen Schmidt once labelled Van Manen as ‘ein Mondrian der Balletbühne’, following which the name ‘Mondrian of dance’ becomes widely used in the Netherlands as well. 

Compositie

Mondrian of dance (or not)

For the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the painter Piet Mondrian, in 1994, Van Manen creates Compositie, for Nederlands Dans Theater’s Holland Festival programme. In an austere white, grey and black set, with two square tables and four plain cubic stools by each table, eight dancers play an intriguing game of attraction and rejection in beautifully mirrored patterns. The leading German dance critic Jochen Schmidt once labelled Van Manen as ‘ein Mondrian der Balletbühne’, following which the name ‘Mondrian of dance’ becomes widely used in the Netherlands as well. Van Manen himself, however, more or less dismisses the comparison. “I suppose there may be some similarities: the clarity and tension and the shared principle of ‘less is more’. But in contrast to Mondrian’s paintings, my ballets are not abstract. After all, they’re always about people and human relationships.”

1995

Rehearsal
Rehearsal for Déjà vu | Photo: Joris-Jan Bos

Déjà vu

However many masterpieces Van Manen creates in his second period with Nederlands Dans Theater and however much praise he receives for them, in the mid-nineties there are also critics who think he is repeating himself too much. One of them even uses the expression ‘déjà vu’, and this criticism does not fall on deaf ears. In 1995, Van Manen hits back ruthlessly with a sublime, virtuoso duet for NDT 2, which he calls Déjà vu and in which he brilliantly reveals various aspects of a long-term relationship. Or in his own words, “Déjà vu is about two people who are in constant opposition. They really have a go at each other.” 

Rehearsal Déjà vu Rehearsal Déjà vu Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Rehearsal for Déjà vu | Photo: Joris-Jan Bos

Rehearsal Déjà vu

Déjà vu

However many masterpieces Van Manen creates in his second period with Nederlands Dans Theater and however much praise he receives for them, in the mid-nineties there are also critics who think he is repeating himself too much. One of them even uses the expression ‘déjà vu’, and this criticism does not fall on deaf ears. In 1995, Van Manen hits back ruthlessly with a sublime, virtuoso duet for NDT 2, which he calls Déjà vu and in which he brilliantly reveals various aspects of a long-term relationship. Or in his own words, “Déjà vu is about two people who are in constant opposition. They really have a go at each other.” 

Van Manen deliberately sets the duet to Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, a composition that has already been used often by choreographers and has even been described as ‘danced to death’. But Van Manen would not be Van Manen if he did not succeed in giving the universally known composition a completely new overtone, whereby his two dancers compete with the score, as it were.

Kammerballett with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot
Kammerballett with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot | Photo: Joris-Jan Bos

Kammerballett, ending in ‘the most beautiful solo ever’

After Déjà vu, Van Manen surpasses himself – if possible – with Kammerballett, created for eight dancers from NDT 1, with a starring role for the female dancer Sol León, who alongside Fiona Lummis has now become Van Manen’s new muse. In the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, dance critic Astrid van Leeuwen writes, “Like a toreador, the Spaniard Sol León captivates attention in the final section of Kammerballett (..) What Van Manen shows here demonstrates such simplicity, yet is so moving at the same time that you wonder whether the man will ever be able to match this beauty again.”

Kammerballett with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot Kammerballett with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Kammerballett with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot | Photo: Joris-Jan Bos

Kammerballett with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot

Kammerballett, ending in ‘the most beautiful solo ever’

After Déjà vu, Van Manen surpasses himself – if possible – with Kammerballett, created for eight dancers from NDT 1, with a starring role for the female dancer Sol León, who alongside Fiona Lummis has now become Van Manen’s new muse. In the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, dance critic Astrid van Leeuwen writes, “Like a toreador, the Spaniard Sol León captivates attention in the final section of Kammerballett (..) What Van Manen shows here demonstrates such simplicity, yet is so moving at the same time that you wonder whether the man will ever be able to match this beauty again.” 

And almost thirty years later, Van Manen biographer Sjeng Scheijen notes, “In Kammerballett, Hans made a solo for her (Sol León - ed.) that’s so stunning that even after seeing it ten times in a row you're still blown away. It’s the most beautiful solo ever made by Hans, and the most beautiful solo that’s ever been danced on a Dutch stage.”

1996

The Old Man and Me
Rehearsal for The Old Man and Me with Sabine Kupferberg, Hans van Manen and Gérard Lemaître | Photo: Joris-Jan Bos

The Old Man and Me

Between 1991 and 2006, Nederlands Dans Theater not only has a main company and a company for young dancers  (NDT 1 and 2), but also a company for dancers aged forty and up: NDT 3, an initiative by Jiří Kylián. Van Manen makes several works for the ‘senior ensemble’, the absolute highlight of which is The Old Man and Me, created at the beginning of 1996 for the dancers Sabine Kupferberg and Gérard Lemaître. “Anyone who’s ever been in love is touched by this duet”, said Lemaître about the ballet, in which Van Manen paints a complete picture of a relationship – if not of life itself – in less than twenty minutes. After the swaggering and seduction of the first sections, in the final section the dancers ‘freeze’ in photo poses, like a nostalgic memory of all the good things that have happened. 

Rehearsal The Old Man and Me Rehearsal The Old Man and Me Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Rehearsal for The Old Man and Me with Sabine Kupferberg, Hans van Manen and Gérard Lemaître | Photo: Joris-Jan Bos

Rehearsal The Old Man and Me

The Old Man and Me

Between 1991 and 2006, Nederlands Dans Theater not only has a main company and a company for young dancers  (NDT 1 and 2), but also a company for dancers aged forty and up: NDT 3, an initiative by Jiří Kylián. Van Manen makes several works for the ‘senior ensemble’, the absolute highlight of which is The Old Man and Me, created at the beginning of 1996 for the dancers Sabine Kupferberg and Gérard Lemaître. “Anyone who’s ever been in love is touched by this duet”, said Lemaître about the ballet, in which Van Manen paints a complete picture of a relationship – if not of life itself – in less than twenty minutes. After the swaggering and seduction of the first sections, in the final section the dancers ‘freeze’ in photo poses, like a nostalgic memory of all the good things that have happened. 

After the premiere, dance critic Eva van Schaik writes in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, “As two ‘oldies’, Kupferberg and Lemaître got what they asked for from their evergreen, their old man, but he also gets commitment from them. With a few black outs, the enforced separation is announced. Then they melt away, but their presence will linger in the emptiness forever. I hope that Reve (a famous Dutch author - ed.) also gets to see this ballet, which makes so many books superfluous.”

 

Paul de Leeuw, Hans van Manen and Erica Terpstra
Paul de Leeuw, Hans van Manen and Erica Terpstra | Photo: Bert Verhoeff
December 1996

Bob Angelo Medal for the fiftieth anniversary of COC

In December 1996, Van Manen receives the Bob Angelo Medal from the COC (the Dutch LGBTI organisation) “for the way in which he has given shape in his ballets and photography to images of men and women, human relationships and sexuality, which can be viewed in many respects as liberating and taboo-breaking, and which ‘play’ with gender roles”.

1997

Jo Kanamori in Solo
Jo Kanamori in Solo | Photo: Joris-Jan Bos
January 1997

‘Hans didn’t use Bach, he actually felt Bach’

In January 1997, Van Manen creates “six delightful minutes, which you experience breathlessly from the first to the last second”, as the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad writes. He choreographs Solo for three dancers from NDT 2 because, as he explains at the time, the punishing tempo of Bach’s Violin Partita No. 1 means it can’t be danced by just one person. “It was one of the most exciting creative processes ever”, is how the original cast remembers the creation of this ‘solo for three’.

Jo Kanamori in Solo Jo Kanamori in Solo Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Jo Kanamori in Solo | Photo: Joris-Jan Bos

Jo Kanamori in Solo
January 1997

‘Hans didn’t use Bach, he actually felt Bach’

In January 1997, Van Manen creates “six delightful minutes, which you experience breathlessly from the first to the last second”, as the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad writes. He choreographs Solo for three dancers from NDT 2 because, as he explains at the time, the punishing tempo of Bach’s Violin Partita No. 1 means it can’t be danced by just one person. “It was one of the most exciting creative processes ever”, is how the original cast remembers the creation of this ‘solo for three’. 

“Hans (at the time nearly 65 – ed.) would work with us alternately and when one left the studio exhausted, then the next could come in”, says ex-NDT-dancer Patrick Marin. “But he just kept on going himself, and despite his age he showed all the steps: turns, jumps, rolling on the floor. And… he thoroughly enjoyed it. You could just see that he was in a sort of creative trance. Afterwards, he must have been completely broken, but he never showed it.”

Van Manen’s choreography also shed new light on Bach’s composition. Ex-NDT-dancer Václav Kunes says, “Through Solo, Hans has added an extra layer to Bach’s music. He has visualised so many details, nuances and transitions that are concealed in the score. He also made us see that you have to find the stops and silences in the music, because only then can you deal with the enormous speed of the composition.” “Hans didn’t use Bach”, adds ex-colleague Jo Kanamori, “He actually felt Bach.”

De dikke van Manen
Photo: private archive
April 1997

The 'dikke Van Manen'

In April 1997, Arena publishes Hans van Manen – Leven en werk (Life and work), the first extensive biography of Van Manen, written by dance historian and critic Eva van Schaik. The book is an impressive tome; a reference book containing a wealth of information and quotes worth reading, about Van Manen as a person, about his ballets and about practically the whole world around him. However, Van Schaik also ventures to ‘psychologise’ his ballets to a great extent. Van Manen is averse to this and therefore refuses to authorise the book. The size of the biography soon leads to the press calling it the ‘dikke Van Manen’, in reference to the comprehensive Dutch dictionary, the ‘dikke’ (fat) Van Dale.

Hans van Manen and Paul de Leeuw
Hans van Manen and Paul de Leeuw | Private archive
11 June 1997

‘Her Hans’ aged 65

On 11 June 1997, precisely one month before the festive day, Nederlands Dans Theater celebrates Van Manen’s 65th birthday in a programme that includes not just NDT 1, 2 and 3, but also dancers from Dutch National Ballet, ex-dancers and non-dancer friends. The evening is presented by cabaret performer Paul de Leeuw, who says – with a big wink – that he is pretty nervous, as he has to address two queens tonight. He welcomes Van Manen, Queen Beatrix and their spouses with the words, “Her Hans, Majesty, Royal Highness and His Henk”, and goes on to say that the two queens have a lot in common.

Hans van Manen and Paul de Leeuw Hans van Manen and Paul de Leeuw Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Hans van Manen and Paul de Leeuw | Private archive

Hans van Manen and Paul de Leeuw
11 June 1997

‘Her Hans’ aged 65

On 11 June 1997, precisely one month before the festive day, Nederlands Dans Theater celebrates Van Manen’s 65th birthday in a programme that includes not just NDT 1, 2 and 3, but also dancers from Dutch National Ballet, ex-dancers and non-dancer friends. The evening is presented by cabaret performer Paul de Leeuw, who says – with a big wink – that he is pretty nervous, as he has to address two queens tonight. He welcomes Van Manen, Queen Beatrix and their spouses with the words, “Her Hans, Majesty, Royal Highness and His Henk”, and goes on to say that the two queens have a lot in common. 

They are both crazy about hats and are very sociable: the queen of the nation visits hospitals, and the queen of the ball drops by when you are lying in bed with a slipped disc. “She looks at you for two minutes, says ‘Darling, how awful!’, repeats that four times and then opens the first bottle of wine.”

Three Pieces voor HET met Sofiane Sylve en Gaël Lambiotte
Three Pieces voor HET with Sofiane Sylve and Gaël Lambiotte | Photo: Deen van Meer
14 June 1997

Comeback to Dutch National Ballet

For the first time since leaving the company in 1987, Van Manen makes a new piece for Dutch National Ballet, which has been led by the Canadian artistic director Wayne Eagling since 1991. In Three Pieces for HET, dedicated to his former muse Rachel Beaujean, Van Manen explores the principle of the anticlimax. He deliberately chooses to begin with a group of dancers and then follows with two duets. The first is swirling and nervously energetic, and the second is a tranquil adagio that gradually decreases in movement density. Rather than ‘starting in first gear and gradually revving up the engine’, he has the two dancers ‘change down from fifth to second gear’, as it were. 

Three Pieces voor HET Three Pieces voor HET Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Three Pieces voor HET with Sofiane Sylve and Gaël Lambiotte | Photo: Deen van Meer

Three Pieces voor HET
14 June 1997

Comeback to Dutch National Ballet

For the first time since leaving the company in 1987, Van Manen makes a new piece for Dutch National Ballet, which has been led by the Canadian artistic director Wayne Eagling since 1991. In Three Pieces for HET, dedicated to his former muse Rachel Beaujean, Van Manen explores the principle of the anticlimax. He deliberately chooses to begin with a group of dancers and then follows with two duets. The first is swirling and nervously energetic, and the second is a tranquil adagio that gradually decreases in movement density. Rather than ‘starting in first gear and gradually revving up the engine’, he has the two dancers ‘change down from fifth to second gear’, as it were. 

Or, as he says himself, “I’ve unravelled a piece of knitting, rather than knitting it.” Sofiane Sylve, who dances the premiere with Gaël Lambiotte, later sums up the effect prosaically: “Afterwards, you’re broken.”

Three Pieces for HET is received with great enthusiasm at its premiere on 14 June 1997. “The ballet is a finely crafted piece of jewellery, in which the gem Sofiane Sylve is set off dazzlingly”, writes the Dutch newspaper NRC. Later on, Van Manen will scrap the first section, following which the ballet still returns regularly to the repertoire as Two Pieces for HET.

1998

5 Tangos live accompanied by Sexteto Canyenque
Carel Kraayenhof and other musicians from his Sexteto Canyengue | Photo: Fotobureau de Boer
February 1998

5 Tangos with live accompaniment from Sexteto Canyenque

In February 1998, Dutch National Ballet presents a complete Van Manen programme again for the first time in over ten years, comprising his successful ballets Metaforen, 5 Tangos and Trois gnossiennes, and his most recent creation for the company Three Pieces for HET. 5 Tangos has live accompaniment for the first time, from Sexteto Canyengue, the tango sextet of Carel Kraayenhof. 

5 Tangos live accompanied by Sexteto Canyenque 5 Tangos live accompanied by Sexteto Canyenque Open afbeelding in een nieuw tabblad

Carel Kraayenhof and other musicians from his Sexteto Canyengue | Photo: Fotobureau de Boer

5 Tangos live accompanied by Sexteto Canyenque
February 1998

5 Tangos with live accompaniment from Sexteto Canyenque

In February 1998, Dutch National Ballet presents a complete Van Manen programme again for the first time in over ten years, comprising his successful ballets Metaforen, 5 Tangos and Trois gnossiennes, and his most recent creation for the company Three Pieces for HET. 5 Tangos has live accompaniment for the first time, from Sexteto Canyengue, the tango sextet of Carel Kraayenhof. 

Four years later, the bandoneonist will gain great fame for his appearance at the wedding of Prince Willem-Alexander and Máxima Zorreguita, and especially for the ‘famous tear’ he elicited from her in his performance of Adiós nonino (composed by Astor Piazzolla, just like the music for 5 Tangos). Kraayenhof says, “With his ‘tango nuevo’, Piazzolla broadened the tango enormously, while retaining its traditional power and rawness (..) He thought it was important to liberate the tango from its hackneyed image of brothels and folk music. So he thought it was fantastic that Hans van Manen made a ballet to his music.”

Hans van Manen with the Archangel, photographed with other Critics' Award winners
Hans van Manen with the Archangel, photographed with other Critics' Award winners | Photo: Roger Donovan
August 1998

Awarded the Scottish Archangel

In August 1998, the renowned Edinburgh Festival honours Van Manen with an extensive retrospective. Dutch National Ballet presents two programmes devoted to his work, and Nederlands Dans Theater is also a guest, presenting, among other works, the world premiere of Van Manen’s Zero Hour, his second creation to (four) tango compositions by Astor Piazzolla. At the festival, Van Manen receives the Archangel, the Edinburgh Festival Critics' Award, for his whole oeuvre.

Hans van Manen and Henk van Dijk
Henk van Dijk and Hans van Manen | Photo: Gert Weigelt

Registered partnership

In 1998, after a relationship of over 25 years, Van Manen and Henk van Dijk say ‘I do’ to one another. Although they cannot marry yet, as same-sex marriage is only recognised in 2001, they enter into a registered partnership, and from now on are spouses, in effect. 

Jaar
1990