Without The Hague, there would be no Nederlands Dans Theater. From our home base, we’ve been touring the world with our dance performances for decades — always carrying the heart and soul of The Hague with us.
Starting 4 February, NDT 1 brings you Wildsong. Dive along with us into the dynamic, surreal worlds of two acclaimed makers that highlight the unique versatility of the NDT 1 dancers.
Last December, master choreographer Hans van Manen passed away. From the very early days, Van Manen played a crucial role in the history of NDT. Between 1959 and 1971, he was closely associated with the company as a dancer and choreographer, and from 1961 also as artistic director. His oeuvre comprises more than 120 works, 62 of which were created for NDT.
We are deeply grateful to Van Manen for everything he has meant to us and to the world of dance. In tribute, you can watch works by Hans van Manen free of charge on 30 & 31 January via our online platform Digitaal Theater. All you need to do is request a viewing link via the button below.
Ticket free of charge
Available on 30 & 31 January
* When you order a free ticket, you will automatically receive our NDT Online newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.
This online performance offers a rare glimpse into part of the oeuvre of Hans van Manen. Over the course of two days, seven works are available to watch online in a form that is seldom shared with the general public. These are not recordings made specifically for NDT Online, but archival registrations originally intended for internal use only.
Such recordings are normally used as reference material for dancers, répétiteurs and crew when a work is revived. They capture the choreography as it was performed at the time, without theatrical camerawork or audience-oriented editing. Precisely for this reason, they offer a direct and unfiltered view of Van Manen’s work.
For the first time, audiences outside the company are given access to this material — a unique opportunity to see these works as they are preserved and passed on within NDT. This is an ode we bring together, with as many people as possible. That is why we are offering this online performance free of charge.
Human beings can never fully realise their highest ambitions or their most tender desires. Even when fate places every opportunity within reach, they fail to grasp it. Confronted with happiness, they feel powerless and inadequate. Drawing on Benjamin Britten’s Diversions for Left Hand, Hans van Manen translated this theme into a theatrical context, shaping it as a pas de deux.
De maan in de trapeze is a poetic circus fantasy. A man, known as “the Clown”, dreams of achieving the unattainable.
Together with Giovinezza (Rudi van Dantzig), Feestgericht (Hans van Manen) and Four Times Six (Benjamin Harkarvy), this ballet was performed during NDT’s very first programme in 1959, presented in Ostend.
Title De maan in de trapeze
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT Marianne Hilarides, Jaap Flier
Music Benjamin Britten - Diversions for left hand, opus 28 © Boosey & Hawkes, Londen
Set design Franz Deckwitz
Costume design Franz Deckwitz
VIDEO
Recording year 1959
Recording by Joes Odufré
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Grafics Liz Klaver
Length 11.34 minuten
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 5 September 1959, Het Kurhaus, Oostende, Belgium
“The ballet is performed in a room 8 meters wide, 6 meters deep and 4 meters high with a door on the right and a digital clock up on the back wall that indicates the actual time. Situation is about aggression and violence.” – Hans van Manen
“An impressive, unusual expressionist ballet about aggression and violence.” - NRC ★★★★
“What a delightful surprise that Situation is performed again by the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) after fifty years.” - Trouw ★★★★★
“The restrained tension in Van Manen's later ballets is explosively present, his austere style of movement is still raw and direct here. "Situation is about aggression and violence," Van Manen said about the work. Great to see that he manages to elevates the duet form, in essence a relationship between two people, to a universal plan.” - Trouw ★★★★★
Title Situation
Subtitle For Gérard Lemaître
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT 1 Lydia Bustinduy, Prince Credell, César Faria Fernandes, Jorge Nozal, Jianhui Wang, Fay van Baar, Amanda Mortimore, Rinako Iida, Aram Hasler, Chuck Jones
Music Soundrecordings for amateurfilms and soundchasers
Light design Oliver Wood, Joop Caboort
Set design Jean-Paul Vroom
Costume design Jean-Paul Vroom
Staged by Mea Venema, Stefan Zeromski
NDT Rehearsal director Lucas Crandall
VIDEO
Recording location Zuiderstrandtheater, Den Haag
Recording date 29-11-2019
Camera operator Harmen Straatman
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Graphics Liz Klaver
Length 33 minutes
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 20 April 1970, Circustheater Scheveningen, The Hague
Grosse Fuge premièred at Nederlands Dans Theater in 1971. It was immediately considered a masterpiece and since it has been performed all over the world, both by NDT 1 and NDT 2 and by other companies.
The set design with its slowly rising line of light was created by Jean-Paul Vroom. Grosse Fuge is the only choreography for which Hans van Manen himself designed the costumes. Characteristic are the long 'Grahamskirts' of the men, brought into whirling movement by their invisible legs and the reiterated upward stretching arms, first with hands clenched, then again with fingers spread apart.
The music by Beethoven is unquestionably romantic, but also with a strong tension, sometimes agression in it. Both elements return in the choreography. Men and women dance in turn and together in unison quartets and ensemble, but also in solos, duets and pas de deux. The costumes and choreography of the women at one hand and the men on the other hand form a duet in itself, a contrast that nevertheless is being bridged in certain details.
Title Grosse Fuge
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT Arlette van Boven, Yteke Waterbolk, Lenny Westerdijk, Mea Venema, Jon Benoit, Nils Christe, Leon Koning, Frans Vervenne
Music Ludwig van Beethoven: Grosse Fuge, opus 133; Cavatina, opus 130
Light design Joop Caboort
Set design Jean-Paul Vroom
Costume design Hans van Manen
VIDEO
Recording location Circustheater, Scheveningen
Recording year 1973
Recording by Hans van Manen
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Grafic design Liz Klaver
Length 24 minutes
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 8 April 1971, Circustheater, Scheveningen (NDT 1) and 5 November 1987, AT&T Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 2)
In reviews Fantasía (1993) has been described, among other things, as ‘one of the best pieces made for the company’. It is a typical Van Manen ballet: optimal expressiveness coupled with structural precision, simplicity and purity. It is a game of seduction between three women and three men. Van Manen set Fantasía to a choral prelude and a choral transcription of Busoni’s Bach piano adaption.
"A breathtaking pairing dance.." - Trouw (2012)
"A masterpiece to frame and give a place of honor in the treasure room of the memory." - De Telegraaf (1996)
"A lovely immersion in ‘typical’ Van Manen-work: utter clear, no step too much, musically genius and ever that tension, yet filled with air." - Trouw (2012)
Title Fantasía
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT 1 Fiona Lummis, Sol León, Cora Kroese, Jean Emile, Paul Lightfoot, Jorma Elo
Music Johann Sebastian Bach: Chorale Prelude Ich ruf' zu Dir, BWV 639 Präludium in a-minor (Fantasie), BWV 922 Chorale Setting Nun kommt der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659
Light design Joop Caboort
Set design Keso Dekker
Costume design Keso Dekker
VIDEO
Recording location AT&T Danstheater, The Hague
Recording date 15-4-1993
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Graphics Liz Klaver
Length 19 minuten
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 15 April 1993, AT&T Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 1)
Polish Pieces by Hans van Manen explores the tension between the sexes. A group of six female dancers and a group of six male dancers are set in direct opposition to one another. When they come into contact, a series of duets emerges.
Title Polish Pieces
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT 1 Fiona Lummis, Sol León, Jean Emile, Paul Lightfoot, Carolina Armenta, Bregje van Balen, Tessa Cooke, Paula Sanchez, Sébastien Mari, Dylan Newcomb, Mario Radacovsky, Urtzi Aranburu
Music Henryk-Mikolaj Górecki: Konzert für Klavier und Streichorchester opus 40 (1980), Drei Stücke im alten Stil, für Streichorchester (1963). © Chester Music, Londen
Light design Joop Caboort
Set design Keso Dekker
Costume design Keso Dekker
Assistent to the choreographer Brigitte Martin
VIDEO
Recording location AT&T Danstheater, The Hague
Recording date 23-2-1995
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Graphics Liz Klaver
Length 20 minutes
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 18 October 1990, AT&T Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 1) and 11 November 1994, AT&T Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 2)
A surprising pas de deux by grand master Hans van Manen. For Van Manen, the meaning of the duet in dance is crystal clear: “a ballet for one dancer is a solo, a ballet for two dancers a story” [Balanchine]. Déjà Vu premiered during the Holland Festival in 1995. Set to music by Arvo Pärt, two black-clad dancers make a striking entrance from the wings. The tension between the two sexes is palpable, yet their sense of connection repeatedly comes to the fore.
"Van Manen captures the essence of human relationships.". - NRC Handelsblad, 1995
"A virtuosic duet in which two dancers probe each other’s limits." - Het Parool, 2009
"In Déjà Vu from 1995, they move for more than ten minutes within a breathtaking field of tension between power struggle and intimate connection, phenomenally danced…" - De Telegraaf, 2009
"Déjà Vu by Hans van Manen is and remains the textbook example of building dramatic tension within a highly distinctive signature". - Trouw, 2009
Title Déjà Vu
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT 2 Jin Young Won, Roger van der Poel
Music Arvo Pärt, Fratres for violin and piano (1980). © Universal Music, Wenen
Light design Joop Caboort
Set design Keso Dekker
Costume design Keso Dekker
Staged by Gerald Tibbs
VIDEO
Recording location Lucent Danstheater, The Hague
Recording date 25-2-2009
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Graphics Liz Klaver
Length 12 minutes
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 1 Juni 1995, AT&T Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 2)
The Old Man and Me is Hans van Manen's third duet for NDT III. Earlier he created Evergreens (1991) and Different Partners (1993). This newest creation, named after a song by bluesrock singer J.J. Cale, is danced by Sabine Kupferberg and Gérard Lemaitre.
Van Manen choreographed this duet specifically for these two dancers, placing the clownesque and the dramatic in direct opposition. The starting point was a simple form: a bench. With it, he explores how a story can be told using minimal means, carried by musicality and craftsmanship.
The choreography unfolds to three contrasting musical pieces: The Old Man and Me by J.J. Cale, Circus Polka by Igor Stravinsky, and the Andante from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23. In a sixteen-minute duet, humour, memory and resignation are interwoven. Rather than relying on virtuosic technique, the work demands great physical and theatrical control — a challenge Kupferberg and Lemaitre fully embrace.
“Van Manen gives old dancers wings.” — NRC (1996)
“Van Manen still surpasses himself with The Old Man.” — Trouw (1996)
Title The Old Man and Me
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT 3 Sabine Kupferberg, Gérard Lemaître
Music J.J. Cale: The Old Man and Me (1973)
Igor Stravinsky: Circus Polka (1942). © Schott Music, Mainz
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Pianoconcert nr. 23 in A Majeur, KV 488, Adagio (1786)
Light design Caboort
Set design Keso Dekker
Costume design Keso Dekker
Assistent to the choreographer Arlette van Boven
VIDEO
Recording location AT&T Danstheater, The Hague
Recording date 29-02-1996
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Graphics Liz Klaver
Length 14 minutes
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 29 Februari 1996, AT&T Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 3)
Hans van Manen created Solo for three NDT 2 dancers who portray a single man reexamining his place in the world. The high pace movements on Bach’s violin partita require an extraordinary timing, and can therefore only be performed by the dancers interchanging one another.
"Solo splashes and swings and makes you chuckle at the scurrying feet, the raised arms as exclamation points, the flashy turns, the impending bent knees and the fun, the mischievous, the speed and momentum with which the NDT 2 dancers present this choreography." - NRC Handelsblad (1997)
“You can almost study every muscle and every minute difference, such as the three energetic boys in Solo (1997, Hans van Manen): the elegant Gregory Lau dances sharply, daredevil Helias Tur-Dorvault enhances Van Manen’s style athletically and water swift Miguel Duarte accentuates playful head nods and slaps on the thigh.” - de Volkskrant ★★★★
Title Solo
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT 2 Jianhui Wang, Fernando Troya, Quentin Roger
Music Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita nr. 1 voor viool solo in D mineur BWV 1002: Correnta and Double (presto) - violist: Sigiswald Kuijken
Light design Joop Caboort
Set design Keso Dekker
Costume design Keso Dekker
Staged by Gerald Tibbs, Urtzi Aranburu
VIDEO
Recording location Lucent Danstheater, Den Haag
Recording date 15-09-2012
Camera operator Harmen Straatman
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Graphics Liz Klaver
Length 7 minutes
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 16 Januari 1997, Lucent Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 2)
Kleines Requiem is a work for seven dancers by NDT 1. For this piece, Hans van Manen chose music by the Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (Kleines Requiem für eine Polka), which was composed on commission for the Holland Festival and premiered there in 1993 by the Schönberg Ensemble under the direction of Reinbert de Leeuw. Three couples dance their sensual and melancholic duets in constantly shifting combinations. When a furious polka suddenly erupts, all six merge into a single, swirling movement. At its premiere in 1996, the piece was hailed as one of the highlights of Van Manen’s already highly impressive oeuvre.
“Van Manen moves with a dramatic and deeply moving requiem” - De Volkskrant (1996)
Title Kleines Requiem
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT 1 Mario Radacovsky, Elke Schepers, Paul Lightfoot, Fiona Lummis, Jean Emile, Sol León, Jorma Elo
Music Henryk Mikolaj Górecki; Kleines Requiem für eine Polka, Opus 66 [1993] for piano and 13 instruments, movement I. Tranquillo; III. Allegro - deciso assai; IV . Adagio cantabile. © Boosey & Hawkes, Londen
Live music performed by Het Balletorkest (formerly known as Nederlands Balletorkest) conducted by Jac van Steen/Walter Althammer
Light design Joop Caboort
Set design Keso Dekker
Costume design Keso Dekker
Assistent to the choreograaf Glen Edgerton
VIDEO
Recording location Lucent Danstheater, The Hague
Recording date 14-11-1996
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Graphics Liz Klaver
Length 20 minutes
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 14 November 1996, Lucent Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 1)
Hans van Manen created this dynamic quartet in 2001 for the young dancers of NDT 2. It is a remarkably natural-seeming creation for two couples. The ballet opens and closes with an overwhelming duet for two men, in which one watches while the other dances. In between, they perform various pas de deux with two women, expressing the relationships between two people through movement. With this work, Van Manen proves himself a master of simplicity.
“With Van Manen’s clarity and musicality, and the incredible lightness and strength of the NDT 2 dancers, this story could not be clearer.” - De Volkskrant (2001)
“A delight of music and choreography.” - NRC Handelsblad
“Unparalleled in the perfect coherence of music and dance (…) It is wonderful to see yet another new generation of young dancers devoting themselves wholeheartedly to such masterpieces.” - De Telegraaf
Title Simple Things
Choreographer Hans van Manen
Performers NDT 2 Cristina Gallofré Vargas, Parvaneh Scharafali , Lukas Timulak, Pierre Pontvianne
Music Guy Klusevsek & Alan Bern (accordeon), Scarlatti Fever (2000), © Bern, Berlijn.
Joseph Haydn, piano trio Nr. 28 in E-major, Hoboken 15, Allegretto (1797).
Peteris Vasks, Weiße Landschaft for piano (1980)
Light design Joop Caboort
Set design Keso Dekker
Costume design Keso Dekker
VIDEO
Recording location Lucent Danstheater, The Hague
Recording date 14-11-2001
Recording by Henk van Dijk
Audiovisual post-production Harmen Straatman
Graphics Liz Klaver
Length 17 minutes
We have made every effort to identify and contact all rights holders. Should anyone have been omitted, we kindly request that they contact us.
Premiere date 14 November 2001, Lucent Danstheater, The Hague (NDT 2)
This online performance is free to watch, as we wish to share this ode with as many people as possible. Voluntary donations are greatly appreciated and can be made via the link below.
Watching from abroad? The performance is available from 30 January at 00:01 (CET) until 31 January at 23:59 (CET). Check the date and time in your local time zone here.
Price free — click here to make a voluntary donation
* When you order a free ticket, you will automatically receive our NDT Online newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.
When opening your unique ticket link on 30 or 31 January, the first performance will start automatically without sound.
1. Use the Unmute button to turn on the sound
2. Use the Programme button to navigate through the available pieces. The pieces are ordered chronologically, but you may choose any order you like. After a performance finishes, the following one will start automatically.
3. Use the Question Mark button for information on how to cast to your television.
4. Need assistance? A chat with our helpdesk will open. Please note that we’re a small team of real people helping you out. We’re also available via digitaaltheater@ndt.nl
A list of frequently asked questions (and answers) can be found here.
I was deeply moved to read that you will be showing a recording of Maan en de Trapeze. It was the very first ballet I ever saw, as an eight-year-old, together with my mother. I believe it featured Olga de Haas and Jaap Flier, and I even think I still have the programme booklet. Ever since then, I have been a devoted admirer of Hans van Manen. The fact that you are presenting this ballet on 30 and 31 January truly touches me.
His MASTERPIECES are unforgettable
🙏 ❤️ An absolute must-see!
An unforgettable choreographer
Hans van Manen is an icon to me
Very grateful for this opportunity!
Fantastic!