Hans van Manen 90

Hans van Manen 90 opens with one of the choreographer’s earliest successes: Metaforen. Although the ballet was created over 55 years ago, it already encompasses all the elements of Van Manen’s mastery, such as his total clarity of concept and movement idiom. Metaforen starts out like a classical ballet, but gradually unfolds as a refined interplay of shapes, full of unexpected twists. At that time, a sensation was caused by the male duet, regarded by many as provocative, even though Van Manen only wanted to show that a pas de deux could be danced just as easily by two men.

Suspense

For the second work, Concertante, Van Manen drew inspiration in 1994 from Petite symphonie concertante, by the Swiss composer Frank Martin. It is a fascinating ballet, interspersed with humour and aggression, which even in the most dynamic solos and intense pas de deux demonstrates the refined simplicity, visual logic and musicality so typical of Van Manen’s work. Like all the best thrillers, Concertante is filled with suspense: something’s brewing, something’s bubbling, but you can’t quite put your finger on it.

Steamy double quartet

Grosse Fuge, the final ballet in the programme, is one of the absolute highlights of Van Manen’s oeuvre. It is a steamy double quartet about the battle of the sexes, whereby – as is usually the case in Van Manen’s work – the women are equally strong as the men. In his characteristically clear movement idiom, the choreographer expresses pent-up passions and erotic tension and release, and in passing adds a whole new dimension to Beethoven’s music. Immediately after its premiere in 1971, Grosse Fuge was hailed as ‘the most significant European ballet of the decade’.