The Seducer: Hans van Manen

Hans van Manen’s “Shimmering Wings”

Amsterdam, 1939.

Tender slim fingers touch the worn metal of the family radio … a dissonant hiss and crackle shatter the solemn silence of the Sunday … Mother is away … he knows … the house is now his theatre … gently … ever so gently … with the impassioned concentration only a child can possess … the wooden partitions dividing the room are shifted … creating a space within which ecstasy will be enacted … this is his grand stage … A voice of mature authority emanates from the radio … the boy’s body is rigid with anticipation … he takes his place in the centre of the stage … He feels his whole self present in this moment … his limbs pulsating with life … his spirit quickened … his heart beating in expectation … his breath flowing in and out … like white light … This is a moment of utter stillness … of time suspended … before that moment when music will wash over him and he will become transformed … Allegro con brio. The violins … violas … violoncello and clarinets pierce the air with the menacing four notes in C minor. Beethoven. Fortissimo. His body is filled with boundless energy … he raises his arms above his head in joyous abandon … his stockinged feet push him upwards … every muscle, joint and bone is alive and shimmering with movement. Pianissimo. Gently … the climax will come again … he inhales and exhales pure energy … every note whispers a magical choreography to his concentrated body … Ever onwards he dances … climax after climax … crescendo after crescendo …  the orchestra gathers all its might for the conclusion … the child begins to spin and whirl … the flutes shriek … the strings cry … the timpani shudder ... His heart is aflutter … he breathes deeply ... applause thunders over him … he stands overcome with freedom and joy … he bows deeply … takes to the wings and returns again … to bow once more … the applause fills his soul with ecstasy … ...