Van Manen in Interviews/news items SFB Reviews

Hans Van Manen flew into San Francisco January 22 with Hank Van Dyk to enjoy San Francisco Ballet's premiere of Black Cake, his 1989 30th anniversary work for Nederlands Dans Theater.

Taking advantage of this chance to talk to this prolific choreographer, I also solicited a quick overview of the post World War II Dutch rise to international dance prominence and I got it. Since the Dutch were not particularly known as a dancing entity during the rise of European nation states, this phenomenon is as historically important as the U.S. emergence, dance-wise, from its Puritanical origins. The Netherlands has a further and desirable distinction: healthy government subsidies for its dance institutions.

Van Manen, of an age to have memories of the German Occupation during World War II, is an utterly tidy creature. Sitting in front of me his oval face and balding head possesses a voice with a courteous, low melodic rumble in English which occasionally lapsed into a Dutch query to Hank Van Dyk, his thirty-year companion. It was an almost unearthly relief not to hear the phrases "you know," and "like", "you understand what I'm just saying".

"We didn't have a tradition. There were a few people before the War, Diara Kova, Darja Collin and Yvonne Giorgi, and they were all women that started, fantastic ladies of course, but nothing really happened.

"After the war Sonia Gaskell started and Francoise Adret, and again they were ladies" Van Manen spoke of another whom he said returned to Germany. "Sonia Gaskell is very important because she started ballet recitals and she made the first important classical dancers, Marianne Hilarides and Jaap Flier, who were fantastic examples of classical ballet. They were the first who could dance Black Swan.

"Then she started the Netherlands Ballet, that was the end of the 'Fifties, 1956-1957. There was a few people who were really unsatisfied with the artistic image, so they left and they founded, with Benjamin Harkavy, Nederlands Dans Theatre. And then it really started.

"It was in 1959, I left the Opera Ballet, in Amsterdam, under the direction of Francois Adret, the Dutch Opera Ballet. I had started to dance in 1951 under Sonia Gaskell. I only was there only a year because they only had ballet recitals. They stopped and went to Paris. I went to the Opera. A few years later she came back and she founded the Netherlands Ballet. Out of the Netherlands Ballet there were a few who had a name in Holland who started Nederlands Dans Theatre.

"I wasn't there the first year, although I made three choreographies for them.

"I went to Paris and came back. Well, from that moment on, with Nederlands Dans Theater, dance in Holland started to be really professional. Also, Netherlands Ballet later on became Dutch National Ballet. In those years we did twelve, sometimes fourteen new ballets a year. Can you imagine? Unbelievable. For ten years it went on and on and on. I made always three choreographies a year, every year.

"We had a fantastic public. Because we had no tradition we had no enemies. So the public went with us. For the public it was new, for everybody it was new.That's the background in Holland. I started with Benjamin Harkavy and later with Glenn Tetley of Nederlands Dans Theatre.

"I left in 1971 and I was, for two years, a free-lance choreographer. But I don't believe in free lance choreographers. You have to work with a company so you are inspired by dancers you know, the company policy you know which is very much an inspiration. It is important that you know how the repertory looks, so you see what the company needs, who should dance new ballets, etc., etc.

"I was fifteen years under the direction of Rudi van Danzig of the Dutch National Ballet. Then in 1988 I came back to Nederlands Dans Theatre, where I am now. With Jiri Kylian, until last year artistic director, we were both main choreographers."

Despite the distinct difference in public support of the arts van Manen paid the United States an extraordinary compliment, "It is fantastic what has happened in America. We were always inspired by America. Modern dance came from America and inspired us enormously." Van Manen remarked that he saw all the American dance films after the War and these were an inspiration.

After the Dutch National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theatre danced in this country, it was when Benjamin Harkavy was associated with Barbara Weisburger that Pennsylvania Ballet first mounted a van Manen work. Now, six US companies have his works. In March pacific Northwest will become the seventh. (Maryland; Pennsylvania; Alvin Ailey; Ballet West; Houston; San Francisco). "Everybody is asking me now."

My first exposure to van Manen's choreography came with the solo from Five Tangos by Piazolla which helped win silver medals in the men's senior division at Jackson for Yannis Pakieris in 1979 and Alexei Zubiria in 1982. The dance was mounted on an American, Clint Farha, in Dutch National Ballet.

Van Manen finds San Francisco Ballet dancers wonderful. He added, "What has happened the last ten-fifteen years is unbelievable, in Europe too, wherever you go there are such fantastic dancers. When a film like Billy Elliott can be made today it shows that dance has become unbelievably emancipated.

Officially, van Manen is currently credited, like Leonide Massine, with the creation of 110 ballets. He laughs "That's because I won't stop and because I don't like to stop. I will go on. I will be producing two or three ballets a year. I am committed for 2002 and 2003. That's how it goes They plan now two years ahead. You're constantly with your back up against the wall. But I like that. It's a real stimulant.

"I love to work with dancers. I love dancers. They inspire me most of all. Every time I I make a ballet for a certain dancer, they often make a name because of that ballet. That is the most wonderful thing that can happen. When someone thinks about a certain ballet they think of a certain dancer. I like that."

Lucky such a dancer!