Maurice Béjart (born in 1926)
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Some biographical elements
- 1926: birth in Marseille (France), son of the philosopher Gaston Berger.
- 1946: he creates his first choreography.
- 1953-56: he gives his first recitals in the Théâtre de l'Etoile
in Paris, with his company the Ballets Romantiques, later called
the Ballet de l'Etoile (54-56), then the Ballet Théâtre de Paris (57-59).
- 1960: beginning of the Ballets du XXeme Siècle (Ballets
of the XXth Century) in Bruxelles (Belgium).
- 1964: his ballet La Damnation de Faust causes
a scandal at the Paris Opera.
- 1965: Jorge Donn joins the company.
- 1970: Suzanne Farrell joins the company.
- 1986: he creates Arepo for
the Paris Opera Ballet.
- 1987: end of the Ballets du XXieme siecle and beginning
of the Bejart Ballet Lausanne (in Lausanne, Switzerland).
Béjart probably is the most famous choreographer in France.
He's been very criticized by most reviewers, and most people
tend to think that his best ballets are the ones he
did in the 50s and 70s, but most admit that he helped
ballet become more popular.
His companies included many great dancers: some spent most
of their careers inside these companies, such as
Jorge Donn, Daniel Lommel,
Gil Roman; others, such as Paolo Bortoluzzi or
Suzanne Farrell, finally decided to leave the
company.
References:
- Béjart (Gérard Mannonni, Ed. Plume) (In French)
- Béjart (Marie-Françoise Christout, Ed. Chiron) (In French)
Some of his ballets
- Symphonie pour un homme seul (1955)
- Sonate à Trois (1957)
- Orphée {Orpheus} (1958)
- The Rite of Spring (1959)
- La Damnation de Faust {Faust's Damnation} (1964)
- Webern Opus V (1966)
- Romeo and Juliet (1966)
- Messe pour le temps présent (1967)
- La Nuit Obscure (1968)
- Bhakti (1968)
- Le Voyage (1968)
- Les Vainqueurs (1969)
- Actus Tragicus (1969)
- L'Oiseau de Feu/ The Firebird (1970)
- Sonate n.5 (1970)
- Serait-ce la mort? (1970)
- Le Chant du Compagnont errant (1971)
- Nijinsky Clown de Dieu (1971)
- Offrande chorégraphique (1971)
- Les Fleurs du Mal (1971)
- Golestan ou le Jardin des Roses (1973)
- Le Marteau sans Maître (1973)
- Ce que l'amour me dit (1974)
- Per le dolce memoria del giorno (1974)
- Notre Faust (1976)
- Molière Imaginaire (1976)
- Ce que la mort me dit (1978)
- Dichterliebe/ Amor Di Poeta (1978)
- Gaîté Parisienne (1978)
- Léda (1978)
- Ce que la mort me dit (1978)
- Eros Thanatos (1980)
- Light (1981)
- La Flûte enchantée (1981)
- Divine (1981)
- Wien, Wien, nur du Allein (1982)
- Messe pour le temps Futur (1983)
- Dionysos (1984)
- Le Concours (1985)
- Arepo (1986)
- Malraux ou la métamorphose des Dieux (1986)
- Souvenirs de Leningrad (1987)
- Dibouk (1988)
- A force de partie, je suis resté chez moi (1988)
- 1789... et nous (1989)
- La Mort subite (1990)
- Le Mandarin Merveilleux (1993)
- King Lear- Prospero (1994)