Hans van Manen (choreographer)
Just Dance the Steps
rec. 2020s
BelAir Classiques BAC226 DVD [90]
Hans van Manen, now 93 years old, is one of the great contemporary ballet choreographers and one of the few who it can be safely said reinvigorated the artform. This brilliantly constructed document, filmed in the run up to his 90th birthday, highlights the man, his work and his reputation. Filmed over about five years, director Willem Aerts followed van Manen at home, with his husband Henk van Dijik, at work, modelling, and on holiday. We see him in the studio with the Dutch National Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater and the Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf. There are short extracts from his works, though none are seen complete.
As he approaches 90, he demands everything not only from the dancers and everyone involved in his work, but also from himself. As he says, “I’ve never thought about quitting because I’ve never been entirely satisfied with my works. There’s always room for improvement.” To a dancer he says, “Everything takes effort and struggle. That’s how you learn.” . It would have been easy to make a film taking stock of van Manen’s life and ticking off his many achievements but happily the director focuses on this colourful and unique character, and it is van Manen who seems to lead the film.
Van Manen began taking ballet classes in the late forties with Sonia Gaskell. He then joined her company, Ballet Recital, in 1951 and went on to dance with the Netherlands Opera Ballet and Roland Petit’s Ballets de Paris. In 1955, he made his debut as a choreographer with Olé, Olé, la Margarita. His third creation, Feestgericht, received the State Award for Choreography. From 1960 onwards, van Manen mainly worked with the two most prestigious companies in the Netherlands. He was joint artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater for ten years, then became resident choreographer of the Dutch National Ballet (1973-1987) and Nederlands Dans Theater (1988-2003). In 2005, he returned to Dutch National Ballet as resident choreographer. Although the Dutch companies are the ‘guardians’ of his work his dances have been staged around the world by companies as diverse as Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Sadly, for me as a UK resident, although the three main ballet companies have indeed performed his work, they are very rare events.
A ballet by van Manen is instantly recognisable. They are characterised by clean lines, refined simplicity, and an aversion to anything chichi. Although, like Frederick Ashton or Martha Graham, he does not read music, his innate musicality is revealed in all of his works. As his biographer states, “Hans is looking for the moving body hidden inside the music.” His musicality can be clearly seen in his most famous works, both of which happen to be set to Beethoven, Grosse Fuge (1971)and Adagio Hammerklavier (1973). These works centre on human relationships without ever being explicitly narrative and there is often a sexual drama alongside childlike playfulness. As an out gay man he has challenged and reinvented the role of male and female in ballet.
His questioning of male and female roles can be seen in his work outside dance, particularly in his work as a photographer, where he seems to have been influenced by his friend Robert Mapplethorpe. His work has been published in books, on postcards and posters and shown at international exhibitions.
The structure of the film is very clever. To begin, we see the dapper choreographer taking onstage bows after a successful performance. Next we see him slowly and painfully walking upstairs alone to the third-floor apartment that he has lived in for almost fifty years. His observation that he can just about make them empty handed but struggles with shopping is poignant. Then the documentary really takes off. He is moving out of the apartment into a well-appointed new home in a building with a lift.
He is seen sorting through a lifetime of collecting; books, paintings, sculptures and photographs all spark memories and comments. Sjeng Scheijen who wrote his biography Gelukskind (2023), the promised English translation of which has still to appear, is seen going through his cupboards and finding a beautifully catalogued archive, observing happily, “He seems to have kept everything about him from the beginning of his career.”
His life as a choreographer has clearly been lucrative, something which is not always the case in dance. He has a stylish home which is full of beautiful, and valuable, works of art. Moreover, he is seen donating most of the collection to the Rijksmuseum, including rare photographs by Mapplethorpe and van Manen himself.
We also see him turning over the copyright of his dances to the Dutch National Ballet, who, it is hoped, will care for them in the decades to come, ensuring that they are licensed to capable companies and staged by carefully trained artists. The latter is particularly important for, as we see throughout the programme, van Manen is very particular as to how the works are performed. This is not so much about getting the steps right but rather filling the movement with the sensations and emotions they had when they were created. As he says, “The steps are not enough. There has to be more than the steps.” This will clearly be no easy task. His main repetiteur Rachel Beaujean tells us that for his 80th birthday fifteen of his ballets were staged, ten of which were staged by her. He disliked one of them and told her in no uncertain terms, “You don’t understand my work.”
In the studio, or at theatre rehearsal, it is easy to forget van Manen is in his late eighties although he does ruefully quip “I don’t know how much more I will be able to show.” What he does show is enough to galvanise the dancers into action. Some of his words though, in a post ‘Me Too’ generation, are barely acceptable. Apropos one suggestive step he says, “It could be a little dirtier.”
However, in these rehearsals we get to see the real artist, with a keen and very demanding eye, entirely involved in works from all eras of his career. Even when he begins saying, “Oh it was so long ago” he knows exactly what he wants. We see him working on extracts from Short Cut (1990), Adagio Hammerklavier (1975), On the Move (1992), Symphonieën der Nederlanden (1987), Sarcasms (1981), Dances with Piano (2019). We seldom see choreographers in rehearsal and so it is so important for future generations to have this document.
The meticulous attention to detail in his work is also in his daily life. He dresses immaculately and always seems aware of how he presents himself. He is seen modelling for a photo shoot for L’uomo Vogue and is as demanding of the photographer as he is of himself. How the world views him is as important as how the world views his art. Indeed van Manen has always been interested in the “look” of his works. He choreographs not only how the dancers move but how, why, and where they look. He is also interested in how the audience views his work, and in one of his most famous pieces, Live (1979), which used live camera relay, he explicitly addressed audience voyeurism.
The film is thankfully free of ‘talking heads’ which often plague these sort of ventures. The main voice we hear and see is van Manen. He acts as the main character in a drama rather than as the subject of a documentary. In interacting with friends and colleagues, either face to face or on the phone, his comments about his work and life seem entirely natural and unforced. I would have liked to hear more from his husband who, although we see him as a supportive presence, gets to says very little.
So this is a truly remarkable film about a remarkable artist. I say “film” because it feels like one and not a documentary. The careful framing of the shots and pacing of the “action” are immaculately accomplished. The DVD comes in a simple plastic case, and the liner sheet includes basic details of the production team and funders. The funding for a five-year project must have been substantial, and we owe all of them all tremendous gratitude. The film is primarily in Dutch, although there is quite a lot of English spoken, so do make sure to turn your respective subtitles on. English, German, Japanese, Korean are available, which makes me think that the producers did some careful market research.
Paul RW Jackson
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Credits
Director Will Aerts
Camera Wilko van Oosterhout
sound recording Will Aerts,
editor Obbe Verwer NCE
Sound design Jos van Galen
Titles Roos Haasjes
Colour correction Joel Sahuleka
Postproduction facilities FeverFilm Picture
Postproduction manager Bart van den Broek
Online editor Nino Oosterwijk
Translation Harry Pallemans
Production coordinator Indy Kisoen
Production assistant Florentine Oranje,
Producer José Schraauwers
Editorial Syrine Krabman
Producer Tomtit Film Monique Busman,
Chief editorial Jessica Raspe
DVD Details
Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, Japanese, Korean
Booklet notes: English
Also available on Blu-ray BD25
