A BALLET VETERAN WINS HEARTS, AND MONEY, IN THE NETHERLANDS.

Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen has been awarded the the prestigious Erasmusprijs, or Erasmus Prize. After the Erasmus celebration at the Queen's palace in Amsterdam, companies including Nederlands Dans Theater, the National Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and Ballet Frankfurt performed van Manen's dances in a three-day festival.

The prize, given to artists whose work is deemed significant to European society and culture, was established in 1958 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who on November 3 personally presented van Manen with the $120,000 award as Bernhard's daughter, Queen Beatrix, looked on. Charlie Chaplin, Ingmar Bergman and Marc Chagall are among previous Erasmus prize winners.

In 1951, van Manen began his ballet career with Sonia Gaskell's Ballet Recital. A year later he joined the Netherlands Opera, and he created his first ballet, Swing, in 1956. In 1960, he joined the Nederlands Dans Theater as dancer and choreographer; from 1961 to 1971 he also served as artistic director. In 1973, he was named choreographer/director of Het Nationale Ballet, and he rejoined NDT as resident choreographer in 1988. He now works for both companies.

Van Manen has created more than 100 ballets, many of them staged abroad for such companies as the Stuttgart Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, The Royal Ballet and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. An admirer of George Balanchine and Fred Astaire, van Manen created jazz ballets for 1960s television shows that popularized dance in the Netherlands. In its early years, NDT hosted several American choreographers, and it was then that van Manen, Jaap Flier, Glen Tetley and Benjamin Harkarvy (now director of the Juilliard School) rebelled, experimented and linked classical ballet and modern dance.

Van Manen's signature works include the 1970s-era Adagio Hammerklavier, Grosse Fuge and Live, as well as the children's ballets Assortimento, Ajakaboembie and Snippers. During the 1980s he created Corps and Visions Fugitives, and during the 1990s, Deja-vu Bach Pieces and The Old Man and Me.