Hans Van Manen

 Hans van Manen has succeeded in bringing modern  ballet – as a combination of classical ballet and modern dance and  movement techniques – to a wide audience. 

Van Manen’s international fame is widespread,  illustrated by the fact that his ballets are performed by more than  fifty companies worldwide. The international stars who have performed  his ballets include Anthony Dowell, Marcia Haydée, Natalia Makarova and  Rudolf Nureyev. To date, Van Manen has created more than 120 ballets.  Besides being a choreographer, Hans van Manen has also been active as a  photographer for ten years. His work has been included in international  books and exhibitions.

Hans van Manen (1932, Nieuwer Amstel, the Netherlands) had his first  ballet lessons in the late forties from Sonia Gaskell, who engaged him  in her group Ballet Recital in 1951. Van Manen went on to dance with the  Netherlands Opera Ballet and Roland Petit’s Ballets de Paris. In 1957,  he made his debut as a choreographer with the ballet Feestgericht,  which received the State Award for Choreography. From 1961 onwards, Van  Manen has worked alternately with the two main dance companies of the  Netherlands. After co-directing Nederlands Dans Theater, he became a  resident choreographer – first with the Dutch National Ballet, then with  Nederlands Dans Theater. Since 2005, he has held the post of resident  choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet.

In 2007, the Dutch National Ballet organised the Hans van Manen  Festival, as a tribute to the choreographer on the occasion of his 75th  birthday. During the festival, Hans Van Manen was made a Commander in  the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In June 2013, he was appointed a  patron of the National Ballet Academy (part of the Amsterdam School of  the Arts).Van Manen received the Erasmus Award (2000) and the Golden Age  Award (2013). Since January 2015 he is a member of the Dutch Academie  for Arts. In July 2017 he received the title of ‘Commandeur des Arts et  des Lettres’, which is the highest cultural state distinction in France  in the field of art and literature. In February 2018 Van Manen received  the Medal of Honour for Art and Science of the ‘Huisorde van Oranje’,  because of ‘his enormous contribution to the arts in the Netherlands and  ballet in particular’. 

Source: Dutch National Opera & Ballet