Hooray for Hans!

Choreography Hans van Manen

Costumes Keso Dekker

Music H. M. Gorecki, L. Anderson, N.Hagen, P.I. Tchaikowsky

Introdans and Hans van Manen: a sparkling and unmissable combination.

One of the most important European dance companies, based in Arnhem, pays homage to its best Dutch choreographer: Hans van Manen, and presents a triptyque of his sparkling work (Since 1995 the company has included more than twenty of his works in the repertoire):

Polish Pieces

Polish Pieces is without doubt one of Hans van Manen’s most effervescent and colourful works. Set to powerful, driving music by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, this work by Van Manen presents twelve dancers in garishly coloured tunics who storm the stage with constantly fresh dance combinations and a fantastically clear play of lines. The group sections are tightly choreographed, full of energy, pulsating, and in the duets the stakes are raised even higher.
In and Out

In and Out is another of Van Manen’s works where he drew his inspiration from a limitation. The stage design of this ‘absolute smash hit’ – according to the dance press – comprises three boxes into which, and from which, the dancers regularly disappear and appear. At one moment they all squeeze together into one box, the next moment they split up to hang, crawl and climb on all three boxes, then they storm across the entire stage. To begin with the atmosphere is lighter and more playful but when singer Nina Hagen takes over from Laurie Anderson then venom and aggression start to appear too, albeit in a highly refined way.

Black Cake

Black Cake, the festive close to HOORAY FOR HANS, is a premiere for Introdans (the company has however previously danced a duet from the ballet). Van Manen created this delightful ‘birthday cake’ for the thirtieth jubilee of Nederlands Dans Theater in 1989, but instead of serving sweet pink pastries, he cooked up an airy black confection, laced with a layer of sarcasm and doused in champagne. In five ‘cake layers’ he sketches a very pointed and entertaining picture of “a chic party, visited by chic people who soon turn out to be not so chic after all”.

Source: www.introdans.nl