ODE TO THE MASTER

Counted from time among the great masters of world choreography, Hans Van Manen, eighty-six years old, is still the most important Dutch choreographer and enjoys a renewed wave of international recognition. An artistic career punctuated from a diversity of events: changes of pace and direction, lightning-fast passions for this or that subject subject subjected to his keen gaze, successes and accolades. Dancer, choreographer and esteemed photographer he has played to chess incessantly with his own talent, never stuck in one box. His ballets, the result of a skillful combination of academic technique and modern dance, of irony and sensuality, are in the repertoire of more than fifty companies worldwide, including the Marijinski Ballet, the Bolsjoi Ballet and the Ballet de l´Opéra National de Paris. Over one hundred and twenty titles created from since he made his authorial debut with Feestgericht in 1957. Since 1961 he has alternately worked with the two major Dutch companies: the Nederlands Dans Theatre of which he was also co-director, and the Dutch National Ballet of which he is currently resident choreographer. A company since 2003 directed by Dutchman Ted Brandsen and formed in 1961 from the merger of the Amsterdam Ballet and Nederlands Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet from then attracted the attention of numerous choreographers and guest artists. It is a formation with an impressive and refined repertoire in the name of classical ballet of yesterday and today. Indeed, since its founding, it has opened its doors to the greatest masters of neoclassicism (so from much so that it is the European company with the most Balanchine and Ashton titles in its repertoire), but it has also and above all blossomed a generation of Dutch auteurs who since the 1970s have transformed the aesthetics and language of European ballet today, from the committed Rudy Van Dantzig to the formalist genius of Hans Van Manen. Its stage is fortunate to be the main one for staging Van Manen's works, and the show, a tribute to his masterful opera, presents three of his masterpieces: Adagio Hammerklavier, Kleines Requiem, 5 Tangos.

ADAGIO HAMMERKLAVIER

choreography Hans Van Manen

music Ludwig van Beethoven

costumes and sets Jean Paul Vroom

lighting design Jan Hofstra

_Adagio Hammerklavier _is considered, worldwide, a 20th-century dance classic. Hans Van Manen describes this ballet for three couples as "an ode to deceleration." Inspired to a adagio taken from from a piano sonata by Beethoven, the choreographer investigates the infinite possibilities for a movement to be slow. He himself compares the final effect of his creation to "the exact moment when, to following a push, a wheel is still moving, just before it falls."

KLEINES REQUIEM

choreography Hans Van Manen

music Henryk Mikolaj Górecki

costumes and sets Keso Dekker

lighting design Joop Caboort

Hans van Manen in 1993 created his Kleines Requiem to the somber and mysterious music of the third and fourth parts of Górecki's _Requiem für eine Polka _. The choreography opens with the dancers crossing the stage, darting from one end to the other, then developing into a series of duets that gently ebb and flow together. The tones ofopera are at once sad and consoling, alluding to themes of separation, death and loneliness. The sets and costumes are by Keso Dekker, from longtime artistic partner of the Dutch master.

5 TANGOS

choreography Hans Van Manen

music Astor Piazzolla

costumes and set design Jean Paul Vroom

lighting design Jan Hofstra

The resounding _5 Tangos _is perhaps the most performed of all Hans Van Manen's creations. With this work, the Dutch choreographer introduced the Netherlands to the world of Astor Piazzolla's tango nuevo in 1977. Through a sequence of five unique compositions, the choreography is revealed as a sensual duet between the veiled passion of tango and the light abstraction of classical ballet.