Who is Hans van Manen
Learn more about the legendary Dutch choreographer
Hans van Manen is internationally recognized as one of the grand masters of contemporary ballet. Including his works for television, he has created more than 150 ballets, which all bear his distinct signature. Clarity in structure, refined simplicity and an aversion to decorative frills form the key elements in his extremely musical ballets, which always concern human relationships, without becoming anecdotal.
Born in Nieuwer-Amstel, the Netherlands, in 1932, Van Manen had his first ballet lessons in the late forties from Sonia Gaskell, who engaged him in her group Ballet Recital in 1951. He went on to dance with the Netherlands Opera Ballet and Roland Petit’s Ballets de Paris. In 1955, he made his debut as a choreographer with Olé, Olé, la Margarita. For his third creation, Feestgericht, he already received the State Award for Choreography. From 1960 onwards, Van Manen worked alternately with the two main dance companies of the Netherlands. After co-directing Nederlands Dans Theater for almost ten years, he became a resident choreographer–first with the Dutch National Ballet (1973-1987), and then with Nederlands Dans Theater (1988-2003). From 2005 up to his death, he was resident choreographer with Dutch National Ballet again, becoming senior choreographer in the latter years. Besides being in the repertoire of Dutch National Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater and Introdans–the three Dutch ‘custodians’ of his works–his ballets are also danced by over a hundred companies outside the Netherlands. Repetiteurs/ex-dancers affiliated to the Hans van Manen Foundation, directed by Rachel Beaujean, travel to the companies in question to rehearse his works.
In creating his ballets for Nederlands Dans Theater and Dutch National Ballet, Van Manen was inspired by many ‘dance muses’, including (in chronological order) Gérard Lemaître, Marianne Sarstädt, Alexandra Radius and Han Ebbelaar, Coleen Davis, Rachel Beaujean, Fiona Lummis, Sol Léon, Sabine Kupferberg and Igone de Jongh. The many international stars with whom he worked include Anthony Dowell, Marcia Haydée, Natalia Makarova, Rudolf Nureyev, Ulyana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva.
For his individual ballets and for his great contribution to the arts in general, Van Manen received numerous awards, including the Erasmus Prize, the Prix Benois de la Danse Life Achievement Award, the Grand Prix à la Carrière, the VSCD Oeuvre Prize and the German Musikpreis for his brilliant musicality. At the Hans van Manen Festival organised by Dutch National Ballet to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday in 2007, the master choreographer was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. This was followed in 2017 by his appointment as a Commander of the French Ordre des Lettres et des Arts, and in 2018 King Willem-Alexander presented him with the Honorary Medal for Arts and Science of the Order of the House of Orange for his ‘enormous contribution to the arts in the Netherlands and to ballet in particular’.
From 2013 up to his death, Van Manen was the patron of the Dutch National Ballet Academy and he became a member of the Society of Arts in 2015. Besides being a choreographer, Hans van Manen was also active as an extremely successful photographer for ten years. His work has been published in book form and shown at international exhibitions.
Bio courtesy of Dutch National Ballet
