Sjeng Scheijen

Hans van Manen is the most important choreographer the Netherlands has ever known. His dance performances are performed in all parts of the world by the most prominent companies. Now, at the age of ninety, the number of companies performing his ballets is still growing.

In Gelukskind, Sjeng Scheijen describes Hans van Manen's life. He explains how Hans came out of the war impoverished and completely starving. How, as the son of a single German mother and without a completed primary school education, he started working at the age of twelve, only to make his first choreography ten years later. Since then he has continuously produced beauty and rediscovered his great gift again and again. A lucky child.

The book describes Hans van Manen as an elusive and complete artist, a multidisciplinary inspirer who managed to take the close-knit creative teams he led to great heights. But it is also a history of the unique social and creative experiments that spawned the 1960s and 1970s, a history in which Hans played a crucial role. Sjeng Scheijen received exclusive access to Hans van Manen's archive and spoke extensively with himself, his fellow artists and his loved ones.