Balanchine / Van Manen / Arqués

The first piece in this program is The Four Temperaments, one of the early works of the Russian-American George Balanchine (1904-1983). In addition to being an important key work in his oeuvre, in 1961, it was also the first Balanchine ballet to be included in the repertoire of Het Nationale Ballet.

The second work is by Hans van Manen. According to dance critics, this Dutch grandmaster, in his Frank Bridge Variations, seems to have provided the only possible danced answer to Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. In melancholic duets, passionate solos and powerful group segments, he indulges in contrasts: sharp and flowing, exact and free, impetuous and melancholy. But however diverse they may be, the nine segments together form a unity that is as natural as it is astonishing.

The third work in this program is Manoeuvre, which Spaniard Juanjo Arqués (1977) created in 2020 for Het Nationale Ballet. It is an abstract choreography that is inspired by thoughts about the changing views in our Western society on the concept of masculinity.