‘Sonia Gaskell said I had no choreographic talent and that I ought to give up. I thought: up yours’
'I couldn’t name anyone in Dutch painting and poetry, nor in theatre and music, who is as unique as Hans van Manen is in dance’
Gerrit Komrij
‘Unfortunately, I wasn’t a wonderful dancer myself. You get these gorgeous boys who immediately move the audience as soon as they come on stage. I could turn well, but I really didn’t have an easy physique. And I had to do a lot more than just come on stage before the audience swooned’
‘Tonight there are two queens in the audience: Her Majesty and Her Hans. They’re both mad about hats and very sociable. The queen of the country visits hospitals, and the queen of the ball comes to visit you when you’re lying in bed with a slipped disc. She looks at you, says ‘Darling, how awful!’ four times, and then opens the first bottle of wine’
Paul de Leeuw
‘As a choreographer, you’re actually always stark naked (..) I start with nothing. The dancers stand waiting for you. You stand waiting for yourself’
'Hans is the only choreographer who comes into the studio in a Prada-Gucci outfit. As if he’s ready to go out on the town’
Sofiane Sylve
‘I’m not a “wind-from-the-mountains” choreographer’
‘Not a day goes by without me thinking of Van Manen or his art (..) He and his work are integral to my existence, just as Bach lives on in the life of every serious working musician’
Martin Schläpfer
‘I’m a total Calvinist. Everything I think is superfluous has to be chucked out’
‘In his motto “Dance expresses dance and nothing else”, Hans van Manen could maybe have expressed himself more clearly. Because what he actually means to say is “Dance expresses only dance and everything else as well”. That would have been even more magical. A bit more Cruijffian too’
Dans Magazine
‘I really don’t want to put myself on a par with Mondriaan, although there are some similarities: clarity, coherence, tension and the shared principle of “less is more”’
‘Dancers are inclined to think they need to keep jumping around in order to be interesting (..) But with Hans, “less” did indeed turn out to be “more”. Sometimes, a simple glance has more power than hanging upside down and moving around in all directions’
Sofiane Sylve
‘I like it when something goes from a to z, and not from a to q to w to b. That’s not stagecraft; that’s decoration. That isn’t about anything’
‘It’s true that Hans has an answer to everything. And he’s nearly always right. It’s enough to drive you crazy’
Roel Voorintholt
‘I hate dance that wants to imitate words; dance that gets literary. The idea that something should be beautiful because it says in the programme how many victims fell in Hiroshima is really distasteful to me’
‘Hans allowed me to be myself. He put Fiona on stage as Fiona, and at the same time made me grand. I didn’t have to portray an emotion or a feeling, or be a muse. I could just be a person. And that’s a great gift’
Fiona Lummis
‘What you see is what you get, and the rest is your own problem’
‘All Van Manen’s ballets are erotic, because they’re never about guilt. They have the beauty of a keyhole that’s been cut with extreme precision’
Gerardjan Rijnders
‘And the deeper ideas? Oh, I just leave them to the audience. They’re intelligent enough to find their own interpretation of what they’re offered visually. I never mean more than what you actually see’
‘I think the strongest contribution Hans has given to Dutch dance is the combination of sexual tension and humour on stage. The fact that things can be naughty – and they can be naughty on pointe as well’
Anouk van Dijk
‘Whenever I hear a nice piece of music, I want to do a little dance’
‘When our daughter Saura was born, Hans – as her godfather – came to The Hague in white tie. That really touched us (..) He took his job very seriously. He wanted everything arranged immediately – from her studies to her guardianship’
Paul Lightfoot and Sol León
‘You get those people who think they shouldn’t be influenced, and they should just be themselves. I’d like to know what that is – “being yourself”’
‘Hans could be really tough; sometimes almost mean. But once he stopped the rehearsal and said to me “And don’t let yourself be intimidated by me!” That was a great help’
Mea Venema
‘There’s nothing nicer than being influenced. I don’t know how it happens, but take it from me inspiration (as it’s known) doesn’t come from above. It comes from below’
‘He could really get on your case. But if he’d gone over the top, he’d phone you in the evening. Or he’d take along a bag of oranges next day and roll them over the studio floor’
Rachel Beaujean
‘I used to be really tough sometimes, but I was mainly really tough on the people I love so much’
'Nowadays, he’s so much milder. It never happens now that people walk out of the studio in tears’
Mea Venema
‘The thing that’s extremely important – to humanity, I could almost say – is curiosity. But I mean true curiosity. Not the curiosity about what’s happening to the woman next door’
‘Hans is able to create total concentration in the studio. Not like in a labour camp, but pleasant concentration. A two-hour rehearsal with Hans feels like one minute’
Krzysztof Pastor
‘The first rehearsal day terrifies me (..) But even if you fall down stairs or jump in front of a car, there’s nothing wrong with you. You just have to go to that theatre – there’s no getting out of it’
‘I think it’s wonderful that you see lots of precision and beautiful classical lines in Hans’s ballets, but what stays in your mind afterwards is the humanity of his pieces’
Nancy Euverink
‘I don’t have an agent, or an answering machine, or a fax or a computer. With a single telephone I arrange everything in the whole world’
‘The pleasure given by Van Manen’s apparently simple but ever so refined interplay of lines is the shortest route to visual bliss’
NRC Handelsblad
‘I work best when I’m backed up against the wall. I’ve stopped writing down my ideas. When you read over it again, you think “what a load of rubbish!”’
‘A hand extended, a glance, a resolute twist – it seems like nothing, but at the same time it says it all’
Het Parool
‘I find dancers attractive. I mean without it having anything to do with eroticism (...) It gives me incredible pleasure to watch them – the professionalism; the mystery. Being seriously at work with them and meanwhile thinking “Mmm, sexy” every so often’
‘For Hans, every movement, every step, every turn, every inclination of the head has to be special. It took hours before we able to convey just the right tension and just the right feeling with blowing one little kiss’
Margus Spekkers
‘In the studio, I pretend I’m 18, but when I get home I can feel that’s not the case anymore. After a rehearsal day, I sometimes have to go down the stairs backwards’
‘Hans kept working with one of us till he or she was exhausted and left the studio sweating, and then the next one could come in. But he just kept going himself – turning, jumping and rolling around the floor. And he had a wonderful time’
Patrick Marin
‘I still demonstrate everything. Not beautifully, but full out – like a madman (..) Because that’s the only way to come up with new things. It forces you to go one step further every time’
‘By always demonstrating everything, Hans presents you with an enormous challenge. If he can do it, there’s no reason why you can’t’
Cédric Ygnace
‘If I get stuck occasionally, I just say “OK – let’s go home, because Uncle Hans can’t think of anything”. That’s better than trying to think up some nice steps in a hurry’
‘What I’ve learned from Hans is that choreography is also just a job. You begin at A and you work for as long as takes to get to Z. It isn’t a case of being filled with divine inspiration’
Ted Brandsen
‘You always have to get dancers to work slightly above their capacity. They have to take risks and show courage. Dance has to be risky. A relationship is only interesting if there’s risk involved’
‘When I dance in Hans’s ballets, then I dance as if he’s the only person in the audience and nobody else exists’
Igone de Jongh
‘Muses do more than just inspire. You get so much back from them. They’re not afraid to make mistakes and not afraid to get told off. They keep on surprising you with what they have to show. Because they’re so incredibly good at interpreting, it’s me who gets a certificate of good character’
‘Live is the biggest gift I ever received in my career. The ballet sums up my life, as it were (..) At my last performance in 2000, during the flashback, I saw my whole life pass before me: all the ballets, all the Swan Lakes, all my dancing partners, the death of Henny Jurriëns and the birth of my three children’
Coleen Davis
‘I’ve never made anything intended to provoke. Every time, I think “Can I do that?” So long as you have a reason for it, you can do anything’
‘When I got to know Hans at the age of 17, I knew straight away that he had so much to offer me. Nevertheless, I was frightened to death of him (..) I’d barely started coming to terms with my own homosexuality, and then you see him – a man who is completely comfortable with his homosexuality. That scared the hell out of me’
Jean Emile
‘There’s a lot of aggression in my work. But there are never any winners’
‘I really enjoy the way Hans talks. It’s associative, with lots of idiom and unexpected twists and turns. It’s very capricious, but at the same time so apt’
Willem Melchior
‘If there’s something I hate, it’s women who play the woman, or men that just have to be the man. In dance, there’s no difference between men and women. All that pissing around only starts after work’
‘Yes, Hans has sometimes said he’d have liked to marry me. But Hans is homosexual and very down-to-earth, so it was never going to happen’
Rachel Beaujean
‘Three dancers is something that doesn’t interest me. Three is a love triangle, which means that everyone suffers. And suffering’s not my cup of tea’
‘Sometimes Hans surprises himself with his own work. “Hey, it’s actually quite a good ballet”, I hear him say sitting next to me in the theatre’
Mea Venema
‘I like to do things as cheaply as possible, because I’m such an oaf as to think, “Well, if it’s not a great success, at least it won’t have cost too much”’
‘Hans is actually very superstitious. He always has thirteen coins in his pocket at a premiere. And he always counts the steps on a staircase’
Rachel Beaujean
‘I’ve made lots of things for children. Or rather for anyone who feels like a child. I think highly of them – you can’t fool the little beggars. Dance has to be understandable for them. Okay, so that’s obvious – seeing as that’s my principle in any case’
‘If we’re going somewhere in the car, he counts the herons, because they bring good luck. I never see one, but they’re always turning up for Hans. A flying heron makes his day’
Mea Venema
‘Nothing’s easier than never lying. Otherwise, you have such a lot to remember. With the truth, you can bump your head, but not fail. And the same applies to my work’
'Hans is very clear and honest with his criticism. He can come to you after a performance and say “Tonight wasn’t your best one”’
Igone de Jongh
‘I look at art like I look at someone I’m in love with. I don’t question it... I just believe it. But if I don’t like something, then I think all sorts. The things I see then!’
‘Hans van Manen is the most kind, helpful, critical, funny, wicked, brilliant, enthusiastic, remarkable, loyal, sexy, ironic, respectful, talented, expert, and unpredictable friend and colleague that anyone could want’
William Forsythe
‘Without repertoire, there’s no tradition. And without tradition, there’s no link to what went before. Tradition is not something of the past. Tradition is what we do with the past today’
‘Hans has formed my way of looking at and thinking about dance (..) and that’s made me realise once and for all that dance must be about dance, and that innovation is not automatically the denial of achievements’
Ine Rietstap
‘I’m finding it increasingly difficult to find music. Many beautiful pieces have been written to which you can make a nice little dance. But what I’m looking for is compositions where the drama is concealed within them already, as it were’
‘On the subject of musicality, Hans is very outspoken. “No, no, no – I’m not doing that! You’re doing this, but I’m doing this!”’
Ted Brandsen
‘Whichever ballet it is, there’s always something that grates; that I don’t like. They’re usually details, just like a comma can be immensely important to someone who writes’
‘Everything works. The movements are set in space with photographic precision, the dancing enters into magical union with the music, a few glances say more than a hundred pirouettes, and the mutual relationships are portrayed in sharp focus’
De Telegraaf
‘Everyone knows I’m getting on in years, so I always fly business class and stay in fantastic hotels. When I rehearse with San Francisco Ballet, I get three rooms at the Ritz with breathtaking staff!’
'Van Manen is obviously no longer thirty, but his wicked eyes, sharp tongue and the number of Marlboros he lights up certainly don’t give an elderly impression’
De Pers
‘I have no regrets. I’d like to have been able to work magic, but you can’t really have regrets about that’
‘Michelangelo demanded of a good statue that it could be rolled down a mountain without anything breaking off. Van Manen makes such statues in the field of dance; choreographic art works reduced to their essence, which are nevertheless permeated with emotions, conflicts and the tensions of today’
Jochen Schmidt
‘In my ballets, I strive for less and less movement. Every superfluous step has to be chucked out’
‘Hans van Manen is the foundation of Dutch dance’
Alexandra Radius
‘I am absolutely going to go on. I couldn’t do otherwise. I couldn’t imagine any reason not to go on. Yes – count yourself lucky’
‘If you don’t like dance, you do like Van Manen. And if you do like dance, you’re totally in love with his work’
Han Ebbelaar
‘But if I can’t do it anymore, then I’ll stop on the spot. I just hope that when it comes to it, there’s lots of snooker and tennis on TV. Otherwise I’ll be bored stiff’
‘No choreographer makes you so beautiful’
Sofiane Sylve
Quotes selected by Astrid van Leeuwen.