The Béjart

Ballet Lausanne travels the world: Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Dakar, Amsterdam, Berlin… Since it was founded in 1987, following in the footsteps of the late “Ballet du XXe Siècle”, Béjart Ballet Lausanne has proved its ability to adapt and perform in venues of all sizes, from the Palais des Congrès in Paris (3,700 seats) and the intimate Opéra Royal in Versailles (700 seats), to the more contemporary architecture of the Shanghai Cultural Square, as well as in all the great theatres of the past (Mariinsky, Bolshoi, Scala).

Shanghai Cultural Square, as well as in all the theaters of great tradition (Mariinsky, Bolshoi, Scala…).

The ballet’s 41 dancers of 22 different nationalities perform to recorded music, sometimes with orchestral accompaniment (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain…). Béjart Ballet Lausanne boasts a vast repertoire capable of thrilling the most diverse audiences. At the heart of the repertoire are Maurice Béjart’s multifaceted masterpieces. Musical “blockbusters” such as Le Sacre du printemps and Boléro rub shoulders with ballets with a strong theatrical dimension, such as Le Mandarin merveilleux and Ballet for life (Le Presbytère has lost none of its charm, nor the garden any of its sparkle). Both old and new choreographies were as successful as ever.

On the Maestro’s death in 2007, Gil Roman, Maurice Béjart’s disciple for thirty years, took over the artistic direction of the company and added his own ballets to the repertoire, such as Aria, Syncope, Là où sont

les oiseaux, Anima blues, Kyodaï or Tombées et la dernière pluie, while inviting choreographer friends, some of whom are former dancers from Béjart Ballet Lausanne itself, such as Julio Arozarena, Sthan Kabar-Louët, Tony Fabre and Christophe Garcia. To this day, the company remains true to its vocation as a space for creation.

Maurice Béjart

In the early 1950s in Paris, Maurice Béjart created choreographies for his first company, the “Ballet de l’Etoile”. In 1960, he founded the “Ballet du XXXe Siècle” in Brussels. A quarter of a century later, he moved his company to Lausanne, giving birth to the “Béjart Ballet de Lausanne”.

Maurice Béjart was born in Marseille on January 1, 1927. He began his career as a dancer in Vichy in 1946, continuing it with Janine Charrat, Roland Petit and above all in London with Ballet International. During a tour of Sweden with the Ballet Cullberg (1949), he discovered the resources of choreographic expressionism.

A Swedish film project brought him face to face with Stravinsky for the first time, but back in Paris, he gained choreographic experience with Chopin compositions, with the support of critic Jean Laurent. From then on, he was a dancer as well as a choreographer. In 1955, he confirmed his out-of-the-box thinking with the choreography of Symphony for a Single Man, performed by his Ballets de l’Etoile company. Noticed by Maurice Huisman, the new director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, he created a triumphant Rite of Spring (1959). In 1960, Maurice Béjart launched the Ballet du XXe Siècle in Brussels, an international company that toured the world, and his creative output continued to grow: Boléro (1961), Messe pour le temps présent (1967) and L’Oiseau de feu (1970). In 1987, the Ballet du XXe Siècle became the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, and the great choreographer moved to the Olympic capital. In 1992, he decided to reduce the size of his company to around 30 dancers to “rediscover the essence of the performer”, and that same year founded the Ecole-Atelier Rudra Béjart. The company’s many ballets include Le Mandarin merveilleux, King Lear – Prospero, À propos de Shéhérazade, Ballet for Life, MutationX, La Route de la soie, Le Manteau, L’Enfant-Roi, La Lumière des eaux and Lumière. In addition to directing plays (La Reine verte, Casta Diva, Cinq Nô modernes, A-6-Roc), operas (Salomé, La Traviata and Don Giovanni) and films (Bhakti, Paradoxe sur le comédien…), Maurice Béjart has also published several books (novels,

memoirs, a diary and a play). In 2007, on the eve of his eightieth birthday, the choreographer created La Vie du danseur racontée par Zig et Puce. While working on his last creation, Le Tour du Monde en 80 Minutes, Maurice Béjart died in Lausanne on November 22, 2007.