BEJART BALLET OF LAUSANNE
The Béjart Ballet Lausanne travels all over the word,: Moscow, Beijing; Tokyo, Dakar, Amsterdam, Berlin… Ever since the Ballet’s foundation in 1987, based on the late “Ballet du XXe Siècle”, Béjart Ballet de Lausanne has proven its capacity to adapt and perform in large and small venues such as “Le Palais du Congrès” in Paris with 3’700 seats and the intimate “Opéra Royal de Versailles” with 700 seats, in the more contemporary architecture
of the “Shanghai Cultural Square” as well as in all the highly traditional theaters (Mariinsky, Bolshoï, Scala…).
The ballet boasts 41 dancers of 22 different nationalities who all perform to recorded music and occasionally with orchestral accompaniment (The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, The Mariinsky Orchestra, The Ensemble Intercontemporain……). The Béjart Ballet Lausanne has a wide repertoire capable of filling the most varied of audiences with enthusiasm. At the heart of the repertoire are the great multifaceted masterpieces of Maurice Béjart. The «blockbusters» of musical essence such as Le Sacre du printemps, Bolero stand alongside ballets of strong theatrical dimension such as Le Mandarin merveilleux and Ballet for life (Le Presbytère n’a rien perdu de son charme, ni le jardin de son éclat). Both old and new choreographies still bring forth the same success.
Upon the death of the Maestro in 2007, Gil Roman, Maurice Béjart’s disciple for thirty years, took over the artistic direction of the company and has added his own ballets to the repertoires such as Aria, Syncope, Là où sont
les oiseaux, Anima blues, Kyodaï or Tombées e la dernière pluie as well as inviting choreographer friends some of which are former dancers of the very same Béjart Ballet Lausanne such as Julio Arozarena, Sthan Kabar-Louët, Tony Fabre and Christophe Garcia. To this date the company remains faithful to its vocation: to be a creative space.

MAURICE BEJART
In the early fifties, in Paris, Maurice Béjart creates choreographies for his first company, the “Ballet de l’Etoile”. In 1960, he forms the “Ballet du XXXe Siècle” in Brussels. A quarter of a century later, he moves his company to Lausanne, giving birth to the “Béjart Ballet de Lausanne”.
Maurice Béjart is born in Marseille on 1 January 1927. He begins his dance career in Vichy in 1946, continues with Janine Charrat, Roland Petit and especially in London as part of the International Ballet. During a tour in Sweden with the Cullberg Ballet (1949), he discovers the resources of choreographic expressionism.
A Swedish film project confronts him for the first time with Stravinsky, but back in Paris, he gathers choreographic experience with compositions by Chopin, with support of the critic Jean Laurent. From now on the dancer is doubled as a choreographer. In 1955 he confirms his thinking outside the box with the choreography of Symphonie pour un homme seul, performed by his company Ballets de l’Etoile. Noticed by Maurice Huisman, the new director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, he creates a triumphant Sacre du printemps (1959). In 1960 Maurice Béjart launches, in Brussels, the Ballet du XXe Siècle, an international company touring around the world, and the number of his creations is steadily increasing: Boléro (1961), Messe pour le temps présent(1967) and L’Oiseau de feu (1970). In 1987 the Ballet du XXe Siècle becomes the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and the great choreographer sets up in the Olympic capital. In 1992, he decides to downsize his company to about thirty dancers to «recapture the essence of the performer» and, in the same year, he founds the Ecole-Atelier Rudra Béjart. Among the many ballets for this company, we find 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. As well as 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,
memories, a personal diary and a play). In 2007, on the eve of his eightieth birthday, the choreographer creates La Vie du danseur racontée par Zig et Puce. While working on what will be his last creation, Le Tour du Monde en 80 Minutes, Maurice Béjart passes away in Lausanne on 22 November 2007.

GIL ROMAN
After intensive training with Marika Besobrasova, Rosella Hightower and José Ferran, Gil Roman joined Maurice Béjart at the “Ballet du XXe Siécle”in 1979. He has performed in Béjart’s most renowned ballet during more than thirty years. Artistic director of the Béjart Ballet of Lausanne since december 2007. He creates new choreographies and preserves Béjart’s heritage.
Noticed first as the lead role of Messe pour le temps futur and the role of Hanan, which he created in Dibouk, his undisputed talents as both a dancer and actor are demonstrated in an ever-growing list of Maurice Béjart’s ballets:
Hamlet, Adagietto, Ring um den Ring, M. C, Le Mandarin merveilleux, Ballet for Life, Le Manteau, Juan y Teresa with Marie-Claude Pietragalla; Dialogue de l’ombre double, Symphonie pour un homme seul, Lumière, La mort du Tambour, Renard, Iokanaan, Six personnages en quête d’un danseur, Zarathoustra ou le chant de la danse and La Vie du danseur racontée par Zig et Puce,… Beyond his qualities as an actor (A-6-Roc, Paradoxe sur le comédien) or as a dancer, Gil Roman also met with success with his choreographies in the last fifteen years : L’Habit ne fait pas le Moine, Réflexion sur Béla, Echographie d’une baleine, Le Casino des Esprits, Aria, Syncope, Là où sont les oiseaux, that was presented as a world premiere at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival,and Anima Blues. In another context, he also created in July 2011 the opening of the 14th world Gymnaestrada in Lausanne performed by the Ecole-Atelier Rudra Béjart. His most recent work are 3 Danses pour Tony and Kyôdai, that were both first staged in May 2014 at the Théâtre de Beaulieu in Lausanne. In 2005, Gil Roman was the recipient of the prestigious Danza & Danza Award for Best Dancer, for his performance as Jacques Brel in Brel & Barbara. In 2006, the Monaco Dance Forum awarded him the Nijinsky Award. The intelligence of his work paired with a relevant view
on things has helped establish Gil Roman as much more than just a talented artist. In 2011, he received for his whole career ‘Il Premio internazionale alla carriera, Tenore Giuseppe Di Stefano’ at Catania, in Italy. In 2014, Vaud State Foundation for Culture awarded Gil Roman with the Prix du Rayonnement culturel and, in November, he received the special Prize from Shanghai Art Festival for his work on Maurice Béjart’s choreography of The Ninth Symphony.