Two Ballets by Hans Van Manen: Concertante / Black Cake

One of the most exciting choreographers on the modern dance scene today, Hans van Manen's work is characterized by a supreme musicality and striking versatility. The ballets in this double bill, recorded under studio conditions at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, reflect his choreographic preoccupation with relationships between the sexes. In "Black Cake," the scene is a society party where elegantly dressed couples dance with each other, and van Manen plays with ballroom conventions, revealing a range of undercurrents in the relationships between men and women. Both humor and aggression are to be found in "Concertante," which generates an explosive tension in a succession of encounters between four male and four female dancers.