Hans van Manen's Lifetime Achievement Award

Hans van Manen 10 Nov 1986

Author Roland Gerits
(c) 1986 Dutch National Archive: all rights reserved
Creative Commons Licence

Hans van Manen has been a huge name in dance for as long as I can remember. He is resident choreographer of the Dutch National Ballet but his works are performed by major companies throughout the world including several in this country. I have reviewed Scottish Ballet's performance of his 5 Tangos (No Mean City - Accessible Dance and Ballet 26 April 2015), Northern Ballet's performance of his Concertante and, of course, several performances by NDT2 and the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company.

It was at performances by the Junior Company in Amsterdam that I actually saw the great man. On both of those occasions the audience exploded in applause and every man, woman and child in the auditorium rose to his or her feet in unison.

A few days ago (not long after his birthday as it happens) Richard Heideman (the press officer of the Dutch National Ballet) tweeted that van Manen had just been awarded a lifetime career award (Grand Prix à la Carrière) by a jury of distinguished critics in Cannes (see Hans van Manen krijgt carrièreprijs in Cannes 19 July 2016 RTL Boulevard). According to the report previous recipients of this award have included Maya Plisetskaya, Alicia Alonso and Vladimir Vasiliev.

Huge congratulations to Mr van Manen and long may he continue to delight dancers and audiences around the world with his creations.