About the work
Live is a camera ballet by Hans van Manen from 1979, premiered by Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. It was one of the first ballets to make live filming an integral part of the performance: a cameraman films a female dancer — and the audience — in extreme close-up, the black-and-white images projected large onto the stage. It is danced to music by Franz Liszt.
Plot
Live tells the story of a break-up. A cameraman enters, picks up a waiting camera and first turns it on the spectators, making them aware of their own voyeuristic role. A woman appears and is filmed in close-up — a hand, an arched foot, a glance — as a man comes and goes. The camera follows the dancer into the foyer, where the final duet takes place before he leaves her. Proximity and distance, looking and being watched become the true subject.
Cultural significance
With Live, Hans van Manen — one of the most influential Dutch choreographers — expanded ballet to include the live camera, anticipating questions of perception, voyeurism and mediation that would become ubiquitous only decades later. The piece is among the frequently performed works of his output of some 150 ballets.