Maurice Béjart (; 1 January 1927 – 22 November 2007) was a French-born dancer,
choreographer
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who c ...
and
opera director
Crossbreed is an American industrial metal band from Clearwater, Florida, United States, formed in 1996. They were signed with Artemis Records before being dropped from the label in 2003. The band released two EPs and three full-length albums b ...
who ran the
Béjart Ballet Lausanne
Béjart is the name of several French actors of the 17th century.
Family
The four actors listed here were children, and grandchildren, of Marie Hérve and Joseph Béjart (died 1643), the holder of a small government post. There were 10 children ...
in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, talking vast themes. He was awarded Swiss citizenship posthumously.
Biography
Maurice-Jean Berger was born in
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
, France, in 1927, the son of French philosopher
Gaston Berger. Fascinated by a recital of
Serge Lifar
Serge Lifar ( ua, Сергій Михайлович Лифар, ''Serhіy Mуkhailovуch Lуfar'') ( 15 December 1986) was a Ukrainian ballet dancer and choreographer, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century. No ...
, he decided to devote himself entirely to dance. In South France days, he had studied under
Mathilde Kschessinska.
In 1945, he enrolled as a corps de ballet at the
Opéra de Marseille
The Opéra de Marseille, known today as the Opéra Municipal, is an opera company located in Marseille, France. In 1685, the city was the second in France after Bordeaux to have an opera house which was erected on a tennis court.
However, the fi ...
. From 1946, he had studied under Madam
Rousanne (Sarkissian),
Léo Staats
Léo Staats (1877 - 1952) was a French dancer, choreographer and director.
Life and career
Léo Staats studied ballet with Francis Merante, a dancer at the Paris Opera, and reportedly made his debut in 1887. In 1908 he became Ballet Master at th ...
, Madam
Lyubov Yegorova and
Olga Preobrajenska
Olga Iosifovna Preobrajenska (russian: О́льга Ио́сифовна Преображе́нская; born Preobrazhenskaya; – 27 December 1962) was a Russian ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet and a ballet instructor.
Biogra ...
at "Studio Wacker", etc. in Paris.
In 1948, he also trained with
Janine Charrat,
Yvette Chauviré and then with
Roland Petit
Roland Petit (13 January 192410 July 2011) was a French ballet company director, choreographer and dancer. He trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets.
Life and work
The son of shoe designer Ros ...
, in addition he had studied under
Vera Volkova at London.
In 1954, he founded the Ballet de l'Étoile company (dissolved in 1957). In 1960 he founded the
Ballet du XXe Siècle Ballet of the 20th Century (french: Ballet du XXme Siècle), was a ballet and contemporary dance company in Brussels, Belgium in 1960, by the French/Swiss choreographer Maurice Béjart. For many years it was the official dance company of the Théât ...
in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
(dissolved in 1987).
In 1973, with the Ballet du XXe siecle, he premiered "Golestan", on a poem by Sa'di, based on Iranian traditional music. The ballet was commissioned by the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival of Arts where it was premiered. The first performance of "Improvisation sur Mallarme III" with music by Boulez also took place at that Festival in 1973. "Farah", also based on Iranian traditional music was the Ballet's own commission, premiered in Brussels in 1976 and brought to the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival that same year. The 1976 Festival also witnessed the first performance of "Heliogabalus", based on a poem by Artaud. The Festival's patron was
Farah Pahlavi
Farah Pahlavi ( fa, فرح پهلوی, née Farah Diba ( fa, فرح دیبا, label=none); born 14 October 1938) is the widow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and was successively Queen and Empress ('' Shahbanu'') of Iran fro ...
, the former Empress of Iran, with whom Béjart kept strong ties to the end.
In 1987 he moved to
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
in Switzerland, where he founded the
Béjart Ballet Lausanne
Béjart is the name of several French actors of the 17th century.
Family
The four actors listed here were children, and grandchildren, of Marie Hérve and Joseph Béjart (died 1643), the holder of a small government post. There were 10 children ...
, one of the most famous and successful dance companies in the world.
Among his works is a thoroughly revised version of ''
The Nutcracker
''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaik ...
'', presumably inspired by his own life story, which he staged in 2000. It still uses
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
's original score, but completely scraps the original plot and characters, instead supplying a new story about a boy's efforts to re-connect with his mother. We also are given a look into the boy's strange sexual fantasies. The production design is full of erotic images — some of which are most likely shocking to many, such as
womb
The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', plural ''uteri'') or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more embryos until birth. The ut ...
s and vaginal opening
One of the characters is
Marius Petipa
Marius Ivanovich Petipa (russian: Мариус Иванович Петипа), born Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa (11 March 1818), was a French ballet dancer, pedagogue and choreographer. Petipa is one of the most influential ballet masters an ...
, who becomes
Mephisto
Mephisto or Mephistopheles is one of the chief demons of German literary tradition.
Mephisto or Mephistopheles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Méphisto'', a 1931 French film
* Mephisto (1981 film), ''Mephisto'' (1981 film), a German- ...
. Another character is called
Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon characte ...
, presumably after the famous cartoon character. The production has been issued on
DVD.
Boléro
One of Béjart's masterpiece works of dance was choreography he set to French composer Maurice Ravel's "
Boléro
''Boléro'' is a 1928 work for large orchestra by French composer Maurice Ravel. At least one observer has called it Ravel's most famous composition. It was also one of his last completed works before illness forced him into retirement.
Co ...
." In ''The New York Times'', Jennifer Dunning described Béjart's "Bolero" as "probably his best known and most popular dance." Created in 1960 for the Yugoslav ballerina
Duška Sifnios, the dance features a dancer on a tabletop, surrounded by seated men, who slowly participate in the dance, culminating in a climactic union of the dancers atop the table. Amongst the dancers, who would later perform Béjart's interpretation of "Bolero," include
Sylvie Guillem from the Paris Opera Ballet, Grazia Galante,
Maya Plisetskaya, Angele Albrecht, and
Roberto Bolle
Roberto Bolle (born March 26, 1975 in Casale Monferrato) is an Italian danseur. He is currently a ''principal dancer'' with the American Ballet Theatre and a principal dancer ''étoile'' at La Scala Theatre Ballet. Bolle also dances regularly ...
. In a twist,
Jorge Donn
Jorge Donn (25 February 1947 in Ciudad Jardin, Buenos Aires – 30 November 1992 in Lausanne, Switzerland), was an Argentine internationally known ballet dancer. He was best known for his work with Maurice Béjart's '' Ballet of the 20th C ...
also played the role of the principal dancer, becoming the first male to do so. One of Donn's such performances can be seen in French filmmaker
Claude Lelouch
Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch (; born 30 October 1937) is a French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish Family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1960s. Lelouch gained critica ...
's 1981 musical epic, ''
Les Uns et les Autres
''Les Uns et les Autres'' is a 1981 French film by Claude Lelouch. The film is a musical epic and it is widely considered as the director's best work, along with '' Un Homme et une Femme''. It won the Technical Grand Prize at the 1984 Cannes Film ...
''.
Dance schools
Béjart was the founder of several dance schools:
*the Mudra School in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, 1970–1988;
*the
Mudra Afrique School in
Dakar
Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...
, 1977–1985;
*the Rudra School in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
, 1992–2007.
The Rudra School is still open and is one of the most famous professional dance schools in the world.
Awards
During his lifetime, Béjart received many awards and distinctions for his contributions to the arts.
* He received the Japanese
Order of the Rising Sun
The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight f ...
.
* He received the Belgian Ordre de la Couronne.
* In 1974, he won the
Erasmus Prize
The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. I ...
.
* In 1994, he was appointed to the
Académie des Beaux Arts
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
.
* Also in 1994, he received the
Deutscher Tanzpreis
The Deutscher Tanzpreis (German Dance Prize) is a prestigious prize for artistic dance in Germany. It has been awarded annually since 1983.
The ''Deutscher Berufsverband für Tanzpädagogik'' awarded the prize until 2012. From 2013 to 2017, it wa ...
.
* In 2003, he was appointed
Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres
The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose i ...
.
* Also in 2003, he won the
Prix Benois de la Danse The Benois de la Danse is a ballet competition held annually in Moscow. Founded by the International Dance Association in 1991, it takes place each year on or around April 29 and it's judged by a jury. The members of this jury change every year and ...
for lifetime achievement.
Filmography
*1975: ''
Je suis né à Venise'' with
Jorge Donn
Jorge Donn (25 February 1947 in Ciudad Jardin, Buenos Aires – 30 November 1992 in Lausanne, Switzerland), was an Argentine internationally known ballet dancer. He was best known for his work with Maurice Béjart's '' Ballet of the 20th C ...
,
Shonah Mirk, Philippe Lison and
Barbara
References
External links
Béjart Ballet LausanneRudra Béjart School*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bejart, Maurice
1927 births
2007 deaths
Entertainers from Marseille
Ballet choreographers
Modern dance
Swiss male ballet dancers
French choreographers
Kyoto laureates in Arts and Philosophy
Naturalised citizens of Switzerland
Prix Benois de la Danse winners
Dance directors of La Monnaie
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
LGBT dancers
LGBT entertainers from France
People from Lausanne
French expatriates in Switzerland
Converts to Islam
French Muslims
20th-century LGBT people