The famous French choreographer Maurice Béjart, real name Maurice Berger, was born on January 1, 1927 in Marseille in the family of the philosopher Gaston Berger.
At the age of 14, on the advice of a doctor, he began to study ballet.
He received professional choreographic education in private ballet studios in Paris, where his teachers were Lyubov Egorova, Leo Staats, Madame Ruzann (Ruzanna Sargsyan), then studied with Vera Volkova in London.
In 1946 Béjart received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Aix-en-Provence.
In 1946 he made his debut as a ballet dancer in Vichy (France). Has performed with small ballet troupes - Roland Petit, Janine Sharra, Kulberg Ballet (Sweden).
In 1950 he performed his first production for the Royal Swedish Ballet (Stockholm) - Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird.
In 1953, Maurice Bejart, together with Jean Laurent, organized his own troupe "Romantic Ballets". In 1954, it became known as the Ballet "Stars", under this name it existed until 1957.
Bejart's early opuses showed his trademark style - the choreographer does not use traditional ballet clothes, professes minimalism in set design, and addresses current topics and contemporary music.
In the 1950s, Bejart staged ballets and at the same time performed in them in the lead roles. His company has staged such ballets as "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to music by Frederic Chopin, "The Taming of the Shrew" to music by Domenico Scarlatti, "Beauty in a Boa" to music by Giacomo Rossini, "Journey to the Heart of a Child" and "Mystery" by Pierre Henri, "Tanit, or the Twilight of the Gods", "Prometheus" by Ovan.
Béjart became famous for his productions of the ballets Symphony for a Lonely Man by Pierre Henri and Pierre Schaeffer (1955) and High Voltage by Marius Constant and Pierre Henri (1956).
In 1957-1960, Béjart worked with his new troupe, the Ballet Theater of Paris, for which he staged the ballets Alien to music by Heitor Vila Lobos, Stravinsky's Pulcinella (both 1957), Henri's Orpheus (1958), Themes and variations" to jazz music (1959), etc.
In 1959, he created one of his most famous ballets, which became classics of the 20th century, The Rite of Spring. The performance was staged on the stage of the Royal Theater de La Monnaie (Brussels), it was attended by artists of three ballet companies - Bejart himself, Milorad Miskovich and the Theater de La Monnaie.
After the triumphant success of this production, Béjart was invited to work at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, where in 1960 the world-famous troupe with an international composition, the Ballet of the 20th Century, was created. She toured a lot and was a welcome guest at the largest theaters and festivals in the world.
Among the most famous ballets created by Maurice Bejart for the Ballet of the 20th Century is Maurice Ravel's Bolero, in which both a woman (1961), a man (1977), and a corps de ballet dance the solo part. Also, this production can be entirely male or female. The famous dancer Jorge Donn, the star of the "Ballet of the 20th century", performed with particular success in the solo part of the Melody. In 1977, Maya Plisetskaya made her debut in Brussels in the part of Melody, who then repeated this performance in Moscow at her creative evening at the Bolshoi Theater (1978), the program of which also included the ballet "Isadora" created especially for her by Bejart to the combined music (the premiere took place in 1976 in Monte Carlo).
In 1978 the "Ballet of the 20th Century" successfully toured Moscow. Also on the tour were the leading dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet Company Maya Plisetskaya (Isadora), Ekaterina Maksimova (Romeo and Julia to music by Hector Berlioz, partner Jorge Donn), Vladimir Vasiliev, who performed the title role in the ballet Petrushka, composed by Béjart for him in 1977. In 1987, the same tour of the troupe took place in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in cooperation with the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theater (now the Mariinsky) and Vilnius (Lithuania).
For Plisetskaya, Bejart also staged the duet "Swan and Leda" to the music of Camille Saint-Saens and Japanese folk music (1978), the ballet "Kurazuka" by Patrick Mimran, Toshiro Mayuzumi and Yug Le Bars (1995), the choreographic number "Ave, Maya!" to music by Johann Sebastian Bach - Charles Gounod (2000). Ekaterina Maksimova and Vladimir Vasilyev repeatedly danced a duet from the ballet Romeo and Julia.
For the "Ballet of the 20th century" he staged: "The Ninth Symphony" to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1964), "Webern - Opus V" (1966), "Bhakti" to Indian folk music (1968), "Songs of a wandering apprentice" by Gustav Mahler (1971), "Nijinsky, God's Clown" to music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Pierre Henri (1972), "Our Faust" to music by Bach (1975), "Dionysus" to music by Richard Wagner and Mikis Theodorakis (1984), "Malraux, or Metamorphoses of the Gods" to the music of Beethoven and Le Bars (1986), "Kabuki" to the music of Toshiro Mayuzumi (1986) and many others.
In 1987, Bejart, together with the leading dancers, moved to Lausanne (Switzerland), where in the same year he organized a new troupe - the Lausanne Bejart Ballet (Béjart Ballet Lausanne), for which he staged the ballets "Memories of Leningrad" to the music of Tchaikovsky and The Residents ( 1987), "Trying to leave many times, I stayed" to the music of Mahler (1988), "Ring around the ring" to the music of Wagner and Cooper (1990), "Mr. Ch." to the music of Charlie Chaplin (1992), "Metamorphoses" ("Mutation X") to the music of Jackie Gleason, John Zorn, Le Bars (1998), "The Nutcracker" to the music of Tchaikovsky and Mute (1998), "Brel and Barbara" to the music Bach and many others.
In 1970 in Brussels, he created the school "Mudra", in 1977 - its branch in Dakar (Senegal), in 1992 - the school-studio "Rudra" in Lausanne.
In 2002 he organized for young dancers of the Rudra school the troupe "Company M.", for which he staged the ballet "Mother Teresa and the Children of the World" with the participation of the famous ballerina Marcia Heide.
In 2003, ten years after the death of the famous Italian director Federico Fellini, the choreographer dedicated the ballet Ciao, Federico to him. The subsequent creations of the great maestro and his troupe were "Love and Dance" (2005), "Zarathustra", "Thank you, Gianni, with love", in memory of the famous couturier Gianni Versace, "Around the World in 80 Minutes" (2007).
Working on his latest production, "Around the World in 80 Minutes", Béjart took Jules Verne's idea of a world tour and supplemented it with the itinerary of his latest tour with the troupe.
Bejart has received various awards. In 1986 he was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, in 1993 he received the Imperial Prize of the Japan Artistic Association. In 2003, the choreographer was awarded the degree of Commander of the French Order of Merit in the Field of Arts and Literature.
In 1994 he was elected a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts.
Bejart was awarded the international prize "Ballet Benois" in the honorary nomination "Life in Art".
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Fate rewarded this man with many talents. He managed to realize himself as a choreographer, theater and film director, playwright, writer and philosopher. In 1994, Maurice Bejart became the only choreographer in the world to be awarded the honorary title of academician of the French Academy of Fine Arts.
Maurice Jean Berger was born on January 1, 1927 in Marseille. Maurice's father, the Orientalist philosopher Gaston Berger, a native of Senegal, had a great influence on the formation of Maurice's worldview. From childhood, Maurice read treatises on the history of religion in the eastern countries. So, the ancient Chinese "Book of Metamorphoses" became for him a real collection of life truths.
He always saw the world as something indivisible and subsequently actively used elements of all religions of the world in his performances. It is worth noting that Bejart decided on his vocation in childhood. He studied with Russian dancers and said that Russia was his choreographic homeland, and in 1940 he founded the first troupe - Ballet de l'Etoile.
In the design of the first productions, Maurice was helped by friends. In 1960, a well-known troupe arose - "Ballet of the XX century", in which Maurice Bejart worked, using a new name. “Being a director,” he argued, “is more interesting than being an actor. The actor is given only one role, and the director appears in seven.
Gradually, Bejart's work became more complex: different types of art in his imagination were woven together. Maurice was not afraid to turn to pantomime, singing, elements of cinema, television, circus and even sports. In addition, his productions were characterized by open endings. He devoted his activity to creating a unique language of dance. The themes of performances have always been deep and complex: the search for the meaning of life, the confrontation between good and evil, the nuances in relations between the West and the East.
The highest point of recognition of Maurice Béjart came in the 1970s and 80s. At this time, his troupe toured the USSR. The performance about the French statesman André Malraux received the greatest response from the Soviet audience. Interestingly, the action began from the end: the date of Malraux's death was initially announced, and in the final it was told about his childhood.
In 1989, the Bejart ballet Lausanne troupe took part in the filming of the film "Grand pas on the White Night" in Leningrad. In 1998, 2003 and 2006 Bejart's troupe "Rudra" was on tour in Moscow. The outstanding ballerina Maya Plisetskaya collaborated with Maurice Bejart for a long time. For her, he staged the duet "Swan and Leda", the ballet "Kurazuka", the choreographic number "Ave, Maya!".
In 1998, Maurice creates a production of Mutations, unique in terms of its semantic content. Earth is destroyed by a nuclear explosion. Several survivors are going to leave the planet and go in search of another. It was decided to perform a farewell dance in which they recall their childhood and their carefree, happy life. Hope and faith in the future did not leave only one person who refused to fly away, and thanks to him the earth comes to life. Such a warning from Bejart deeply shocked the audience. The author of the costumes for this ballet was the world famous designer Gianni Versace, who, unfortunately, had a chance to work with Maurice Béjart for the last time.
Maurice Bejart was extremely negative about the free interpretation of his productions and differences in performance. Only those artists who were lucky enough to work with him personally are dedicated to the nuances of his choreographic style. Nevertheless, many ballet stars learned Bejart's productions, and their performance, as a rule, was magnificent. A striking example is the performance of Diana Vishneva, which was positively received by the public, but cost the organizers a considerable fine. Maurice could not accept this and repeated: "It has nothing to do with my choreography". At the same time, Béjart's productions are allowed for many performers who fully adhere to the style of the choreographer. Thus, the style of Maurice Bejart is passed down from generation to generation, remaining unchanged or acquiring new colors.
For his long and eventful life, Maurice Bejart has received many awards: the Erasmus Prize (1974), the Imperial Prize (1993), the "le Prix Allemand de la Danse" prize (1994). Surprisingly, in 1986, the Emperor of Japan knighted him for his contribution to the cultural life of the country. His art surprised and made you think, seemed both attractive and repulsive, gave rise to a huge number of opinions, often opposite.
Bejart's varied experiments amazed critics, who considered him a hoaxer and brawler. However, Maurice himself, with his characteristic passion for philosophy, preferred to be called a traveler. Indeed, he traveled with the audience through different eras and countries, amazed everyone with his colossal knowledge in the history of painting and literature, music and architecture, and thanks to his own imagination, he mentally passed through time, making his creations immortal.
Oksana Barinova
90 years have passed since the birth of the great choreographer of the twentieth century - Maurice Béjart
real name Maurice-Jean Bergé; January 1, 1927, Marseille - November 22, 2007, Lausanne) became a legend for a long time. The ballet The Rite of Spring, staged by him in 1959, shocked not only the world of classical dance, but the whole world in general. Béjart, like a magician, wrested ballet from academic captivity, cleansed it of the dust of centuries and gave millions of spectators a dance that seethed with energy, sensuality, rhythms of the twentieth century, a dance in which dancers occupy a special position.
In contrast to the classical ballet performance, where ballerinas reign, in the performances of Béjart, as it once was in the entreprise, dancers rule. Young, fragile, flexible as a vine, with singing arms, muscular torsos, thin waists. Maurice Bejart himself said that he likes to identify himself - and identifies more fully, more joyfully - with a dancer, and not with a dancer. “On the battlefield that I have chosen for myself – in the life of dance – I gave the dancers what they were entitled to. I left nothing of the effeminate and salon dancer. I returned to the swans their sex - the sex of Zeus, who seduced Leda. However, with Zeus, things are not so simple. He seduced Ledoux, but he accomplished another good deed. Having turned into an eagle (according to another version, having sent an eagle), he kidnapped the son of the Trojan king, the young man Ganymede of extraordinary beauty, raised him to Olympus and made him a butler. So Leda and Zeus are separate, and the boys of Bejart are separate. There is nothing effeminate or salon-like in them, here one can agree with Bejart, but as for the sex of Zeus, it does not work.
These boys themselves do not yet understand who they are and who they will become, perhaps men, but most likely they have a slightly different future. In the ballets of the master, these boys appear in all their youthful seductiveness and exquisite plasticity. Their bodies either tear apart the stage space like lightning, then whirl in a frantic round dance, splashing out the young energy of their bodies into the hall, then, for a moment, frozen, they tremble like cypresses from the breath of a light breeze.
In the ballet "Dionysus" (1984) there is an episode where only the dancers are involved, and it lasts a fantastically long time - twenty-five minutes! Twenty-five minutes of male dance, blazing like a fire. There has never been anything like it in the history of the ballet theatre. It happens that Bejart gives women's parts to men. For the premiere of the Paris Opera, Patrick Dupont, he creates a miniature of Salome. Bejart changes the plot of the ballet "The Wonderful Mandarin", where instead of the Girl, he has a young prostitute dressed in a woman's dress. The film shots also captured Bejart himself, acting as a partner, he dances the tango "Kumparsita", merging in a passionate embrace with the young dancer of his troupe. It looks natural and inspirational.
Jorge Donn. Bolero
But this does not mean that in his work Maurice Bejart is inspired only by dancers. He also works with outstanding ballerinas, creating unique performances and miniatures for them.
“I am a patchwork quilt. I am all of small pieces, pieces torn off by me from everyone whom life has put in my way. I played Thumb Boy Topsy-Down: Pebbles were scattered in front of me, I just picked them up, and I continue to do so to this day. “I just picked it up,” how simply Bejart talks about himself and his work. But his “patchwork quilt” is more than two hundred ballets, ten opera performances, several plays, five books, films and videos.
French choreographer, outstanding ballet master Maurice Bejart (Béjart, Maurice) was born January 1, 1927 in Marseille in the family of the famous French philosopher Gaston Berger (Béjart is the stage name of Maurice). The father was from Turkish Kurdistan, the mother was a Catalan; among his distant ancestors were immigrants from Senegal. According to Bejart himself, this combination of national roots left an imprint on all his work.
As a child, Maurice was a sickly, weak child and the doctor advised him to go in for sports, but, having heard from his parents about the boy's passion for the theater, he recommended classical dance. In 1941 Bejart began to study choreography, and in 1944 already made his debut in the ballet troupe of the Marseille Opera. However, Bejart did not take root in classical ballet and in 1945 he moved to Paris, where for several years he took lessons from famous teachers: Leo Stats, Lyubov Yegorova, Madame Ruzan and Ms. Volkova in London, as a result of which he mastered many different choreographic schools .
Early in his career, Béjart went through many companies: he worked with Roland Petit and Jeanine Sharra in 1948, performed at the Inglesby International Ball in London in 1949, and with the Royal Swedish Ballet from 1950-1952.
In Sweden, Bejart made his debut as a choreographer, staging fragments of the ballet "The Firebird" by I. Stravinsky for the film.
In 1953 Bejart, together with J. Laurent, founded the Ballet de l'Etoile troupe in Paris, which lasted until 1957. In 1957 he created the troupe "Ballée Théâtre de Paris". At that time, Bejart staged ballets and at the same time performed in them in the lead roles. The Béjart troupe staged such ballets as A Midsummer Night's Dream to music by F. Chopin, The Taming of the Shrew to music by D. Scarlatti, Beauty in a Boa to music by D. Rossini, Journey to the Heart of a Child and Sacrament Henri, Tanit, or the Twilight of the Gods, Ovan's Prometheus.
In 1959 Bejart staged the ballet "The Rite of Spring" (music by I. Stravinsky) for the Royal Ballet of Belgium on the stage of the Moner theater in Brussels, which shocked not only lovers of classical dance, but the whole world.
In 1960 Bejart founds the troupe "Ballet of the 20th century", with which he becomes a world-famous choreographer, a recognized master of modern dance. The troupe is based in Lausanne, Switzerland and in 1987 was renamed the Lausanne Bejart Ballet.
Acting in his new capacity as a production designer, Bejart undertook an experiment in creating synthetic performances, where dance, pantomime, singing (or word) occupy an equal place. In this style he put in 1961 ballets "Gala" to the music of Scarlatti, which was staged in the theater "Venice", a synthetic performance "The Four Sons of Aemon" to the music of composers of the XV-XVI centuries, which he staged in Brussels together with E. Closson and J. Charat, as well as "Torment Saint Sebastian", staged in 1988 with the participation of a stage orchestra, choir, vocal solos and dance performed by ballet dancers. These experiments were highly appreciated by critics and experts, and in 1960 and 1962 Maurice Bejart was awarded the Theater of Nations prize, and in 1965 he became a laureate of the Dance Festival in Paris.
In 1970 Bejart founded a special school-studio "Mudra" in Brussels.
Maurice Béjart has directed the Lausanne Ballet for the last twenty years.
He created and staged more than a hundred ballets, wrote five books. Among his most famous works: "Bakhti" (to Indian music), "Firebird" (to the music of a suite from the ballet of the same name by Stravinsky), "Nijinsky, God's Clown" (to music by Pierre Henri and Tchaikovsky), "Our Faust" (to the music of J.S. Bach and Argentine tangos), "Brel and Barbara", dedicated to two great French chansonniers.
July 15, 2007 Milan's La Scala Theater hosted the premiere of the ballet "Thank you, Gianni, with love" ("Grazie Gianni con amore"), timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the murder of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, with whom Bejart had 15 years of friendship. After the tragic death of Versace, the Bolero for Gianni program appeared.
Bejart was often invited to different theaters to stage individual performances. Long years of cooperation connected him with the great Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. He staged the ballet "Isadora" for her, as well as several solo concert numbers for her performances. The most famous among them are "Vision of the Rose" and "Ave Maya". For many years, Bejart also worked with V. Vasiliev, who for the first time performed the version of I. Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" staged by Bejart, and together with E. Maximova he performed the title roles in S. Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet".
Maurice Bejart passed away November 22, 2007 in one of the hospitals in Switzerland, where he was taken on November 16; he was due to undergo treatment due to heart and kidney problems. It was the second hospitalization in the last month.
Maurice Bejart - the greatest choreographer of our time, he is called "a poet of free, strong, masculine dance, a living classic, a ballet guru." Professional dancers say that M. Bejart is the most cruel choreographer of the 20th century. The fact is that the dances staged by M. Bejart are very difficult to perform and require enormous returns and physical costs from the dancer. His productions are modern, chaotic, philosophical. Many say that M. Bejart created his own philosophy of dance.
A professional dancer brings people dance, beauty, love for movements, the opportunity to imitate him and be better than him, so that people develop and grow spiritually.
Maurice Bejart (fr. Maurice Bejart, own name - Maurice-Jean Berger, fr. Maurice-Jean Berger, January 1, 1927, Marseille - November 22, 2007, Lausanne) - French dancer and choreographer, theater and opera director, one of the largest choreographers second half of the twentieth century.
Son of Gaston Berger (1896-1960), philosopher, major administrator, minister of education (1953-1960), member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences (1955). Lost his mother at the age of seven. Influenced by the performance he saw, Serge Lifar decided to devote himself to ballet. Studied with Roland Petit. In 1951 he staged his first ballet (in Stockholm, co-authored with Birgit Kullberg). In 1954 he founded the company fr. Ballet de l'Etoile, in 1960 - fr. Ballet du XXe Siecle in Brussels. In 1987 he moved to Lausanne, where he founded the company fr. Bejart Ballet. He worked in cinema, including with Claude Lelouch (One and the other, 1981).
Erasmus Prize (1974), Imperial Prize (1993). Member of the French Academy of Arts. Bejart's success as a stage director is largely due to the fact that he has completely gone all the way from a dancer to a ballet master. In his productions, he combined dance, pantomime and singing. Bejart was the first choreographer to use the vast spaces of sports arenas for choreographic performances, where the orchestra and choir were placed during the performance, and the action could develop anywhere in the arena, sometimes even in several places at the same time.
The troupe "Ballet of the 20th century" created by Bejart has traveled all over the world with resounding success. The choreographer also worked with Russian ballet dancers - Vasiliev, Maximova, and, of course, Maya Plisetskaya. Especially for her, he staged the ballet "Isadora" and several solo numbers, among them the famous "Vision of the Rose".
In total, Maurice Béjart designed and staged over a hundred ballets. Some of his most famous works were The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky's Petrushka, and Gala to the music of Scarlatti.
Maurice Bejart himself spoke of his talent as follows:
“Talent is a curse, and it is very difficult to carry it on yourself. And I had to create my own style. More precisely, my body came up with my style for me.
