In 2017, the Hans van Manen Festival, organised by Dutch National Ballet for the occasion of Van Manen’s eighty-fifth birthday, was the highlight of the theatre season.
Metaforen (1965), Reflection and symmetry
In creating the ballet, Van Manen’s starting point was an imaginary mirror wall down the centre of the stage, making the movements on stage right a reflection of those on stage left, and vice versa. But Van Manen wouldn’t be Van Manen if he didn’t break that strict symmetry later on in the ballet and then make ingenious variations on it.
A central role in Metaforen is reserved for a male pas de deux and a female pas de deux. Although both were unusual at the time, it was mainly the male duet that created a stir. So much so, in fact, that some colleagues and good friends of Van Manen advised him – in vain – to scrap the pas de deux. After the premiere, the duet was often regarded as a plea for homosexual rights and emancipation, although Van Manen’s sole intention was to show that a pas de deux could be danced equally well by two men.
Adagio Hammerklavier (1973), An ode to deceleration
As usual, Van Manen took his inspiration from the music; in this case, Christoph Eschenbach’s unusually slow performance of the adagio from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no. 29 in B-flat major. The master choreographer was inspired to carry out a deep investigation into just how slow a movement can be. He once described the result as “a wheel that is still just moving after a push, just before it falls.”
In the opening section and the subsequent short pieces for the six soloists, it is evident how much the dancers have to move as one and almost breathe together. Each group section is followed by a duet for one of the couples. The first is tender, although the woman does regularly try to escape the man. Here, the movement idiom is downwards and grounded, whereas the second dynamic duet seems about to take flight, with snappy extensions and high lifts. The tangible unrest of these two duets makes way in the third pas de deux for harmony and submission. In breathtaking slow motion, the deceleration reaches its absolute peak here.
Frank Bridge Variations (2005), Unity in contrasts
The piece is based on Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, opus 10. Inspired by the music and using nine of the eleven variations, Van Manen indulges in contrasts: sharp and flowing, precise and free, angry and melancholy. But no matter how diverse, together the nine sections form a natural, yet stunning unity.
Following a powerful opening scene for the five couples, two pairs of soloists break free of the ensemble. The first couple’s duets are dominated by a suppressed tension. Despite the slow movements, their dancing is charged with energy. The duets of the second couple are lighter in tone and pervaded by tenderness and sensuality. In between the duets, the two male soloists steal the show with two energetic solos: one full of pride and swagger, and the other frenzied with raging fury. To Britten’s Funeral March, the whole ensemble advances slowly across the stage, generating an unparalleled effect that exudes an indefinable threat.