Van Manen, Hans - Van Manen, Hans: Six Ballets

Pas toujours facile en province de s'informer des grands courants chorégraphiques contemporains. ici c'est pour moi une découverte. Sous une apparente froideur, l'émotion est bien là !J'ai particulièrement apprécié le premier et le dernier ballet de ce DVD. Le tout est réglé au cordeau (ce n'est pas un enregistrement live). La caméra est discrète, efficace et ne coupe pas les jambes comme cela arrive parfois pour des réalisateurs qui veulent faire "oeuvre" au détriment des artistes qu'ils filment.

This DVD includes the most depressing ballet I ever saw. Reality at its dreariest. Ordinary, worn out faces, forlorn expressions of a disenchanted experience of life. Manen's lengthy philosophical considerations only prepare us for bad things to come. Manen himself would gain if he kept his back turned to us as he speaks. The East European star of the Dutch ballet tries to save the. show at the very end

Beautiful sound and dancing, and crystal clear HD images, but spoilt for me by the camera work/video editing. The presented video concentrates too much for me on weaving left and right to keep the 'main' dancers large and centre image, and losing everything else.Having recently seen a live NDT II show in Southampton, including SOLO, I have become aware of just how much of both the dynamic movement of the dancers and the story they are trying to tell has been lost as a result. Pity!

Could have been stunning, but camera work is poor often partially cutting heads off, concentrating on close ups when panoramic views would have been a massive improvement. Bit disappointing as performances clearly wonderful