Hans van Manen

Born in Nieuwer-Amstel (now Amstelveen) in 1932, Hans van Manen received his first ballet lessons from Sonia Gaskell in the late 1940s. She included him in her group Ballet Recital in 1951. Van Manen then danced with the Nederlandse Opera Ballet and Roland Petit's company Les Ballets de Paris. He made his debut as a choreographer in 1955 with Olé, Olé, la Margarita. In 1960, he joined the newly founded Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) in The Hague, where he became artistic co-director with Benjamin Harkarvy in 1961 and Glen Tetley in 1969. The NDT presented two of van Manen's works in Munich during the 1970 Ballet Festival Week: Vijf schetsen and Three Pieces. In 1973 he became house choreographer at Het Nationale Ballet, from 1988 to 2003 he worked in the same capacity again at the NDT, and from 2005 again at Het Nationale Ballet. Van Manen has also choreographed for the Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam, the Royal Ballet, the Vienna State Opera Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet and the Ballett am Rhein. He has received numerous awards, including Deutscher Tanzpreis (1993), Prix Benois de la Danse for lifetime achievement (2005) and the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award by German dance magazine "tanz" (2024). His choreographies often broke with convention, such as the all-male duet in Metaforen (1965), the all-female duet in Situation (1970), the dance-film hybrid Mutations (1979) created together with Glen Tetley (which also involved nudity), or the piece Live (1979) with the on-stage use of a video camera.

In 1994 Hans van Manen created the duet Nacht for Bayerisches Staatsballett (danced by Christina McDermott and Oliver Wehe), and the company also included the pieces Vijf Tango's, Three Pieces and Trois Gnossiennes (all 1991), Lieder ohne Worte (1992), Concertante (1994), Déjà vu,Sarcasmen and Black Cake (all in 1996), Kammerballett (2001), Solo (2004), The Old Man and Me and Two (both 2005), as well as Adagio Hammerklavier (2008) into its repertoire. The Ballet of Bavarian State Opera already performed Grosse Fuge in the 1973/74 season as well as Ajakaboembie, Snippers and Septett Extra in the 1974/75 season.

Hans van Manen died on 17 December 2025, aged 93, in Amsterdam.

(Information as of December 2025)