2017年8月アーカイブ

"I am going to marry my mom!"
A Touching Ballet Filled with Love for Dance and Mother

On Christmas Eve, a sad little boy, Bim, is sitting alone under a fir tree thinking about his mother who died a year ago. Suddenly appears a huge statue of Venus from which his mother comes out. Bim and his mother dance together a beautiful pas de deux. This boy represents the young Maurice Béjart whose mother passed away when he was seven.

2017 marks the 10th anniversary of Maurice Béjart's death, one of the greatest choreographers of our time. We are pleased to present the "Anniversay Performance Series" to honor him and to revive the shock, agitation and deep impression that we have appreciated through his works. This Casse-noisetteperformances by The Tokyo Ballet will be the third edition of the series.

Tchaikovsky wrote the music of Casse-noisette, looking back on his childhood with nostalgia. Béjart created this ballet in a similar way. Set to one of the three greatest ballet scores, Bejart's Casse-noisette is one of his masterpieces which reveals the secret of the birth of the great choreographer.

The Tokyo Ballet will bring Bejart's Casse-noisette for the first time in five years to pay tribute to the great master and dearest friend.

Photo：Kiyonori Hasegawa

Béjart Ballet Lausanne (BBL) and The Tokyo Ballet will Share the Stage
in《Béjart Celebration》

Maurice Béjart, a charismatic choreographer, brought about love and revolution in ballet in the late 20th century.

2017 marks the 10th anniversary of his death and the 50th anniversary since his Ballet du XXème siècle's first Japan tour (which was later renamed Béjart Ballet Lausanne). To honor him and celebrate the anniversary of his death, 22 November, BBL and The Tokyo Ballet will share the stage for two days in a sublime gala《Béjart Celebration》.

For Béjart, dance was not a mere joy to the eyes, but an art form that would let people to perceive life and animate the power to live. Inspired by various cultures and themes around the world, he created numerous ballets filled with shock, intoxication and love to stir the audiences all over the world.

Japan was one of the countries that attracted him most. He not only visited Japan several times with his company, but also worked with The Tokyo Ballet on many occasions. His creations for The Tokyo Ballet included The Kabuki based on a Japanese tale of "Chushingura" or M inspired by Yukio Mishima, one of the Japanese most celebrated writers. His bond with Japan was further deepened through such great ballets.

This year, BBL is energetically touring internationally to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his great master's death, but among their tours, this special gala with The Tokyo Ballet will surely be one of the highlights. Join us and enjoy the reunion with the great master who will transmigrate on the stage!

Photo: Gregory Batardon

t 'M et variations...

Photo: LaureN Pasche

Béjart fête Maurice

A Journal Addressed to Maurice

Photo: Francette Levieux

Photo: Gregory Batardon

Photo: Gregory Batardon

Gil Roman unveils his new creation t'M et variations..., a ballet where the movements become words addressed to Maurice. Page after page, in the form of a journal, intimate relationship, the choreographer proposes a series of variations of the theme of Love and the inner necessity of Dance. Fifty minutes - a novel - of pure dance, shock and encounter of beings, friendship and love that bind them. And connect us. Against all odds. Against all, sometimes. Life, always! A radically fascinating choreography, tale of an unveiling, chronicle of a celebration day.

"t 'M et variations... is Maurice's heritage that I see it, and as it continues to live thanks to this organism that is a company." Gil Roman

Béjart Ballet Lausanne and The Tokyo Ballet Share the Stage to Perform an Exclusive Version Prepared for《Béjart Celebration》

Photo: Francette Levieux

Photo: Gregory Batardon

Photo: Gregory Batardon

Photo: Ilia Chkolnik

Photo: Ilia Chkolnik

"I reunited extracts from Maurice's choreographies as one suite, just like preparing a festival. Or as if you compose a chanson recital, a festive spectacle or a light encounter." Gil Roman
Béjart fête Maurice is a tribute to Maurice Béjart through a ballet composed of extracts from his choreographies. A series of pas de deux interlaced with extracts from several ballets, it is a light rhapsody, a celebration and a celebration. Pas de deux bare feet, duets en pointe, eloquent characters, mythical or unknown extracts, all tell an era, an artist, Maurice Béjart. It is a spectacle for the pure pleasure of dancing.

Maurice Béjart

Photo:Marcel imsand

From Les Ballets de l'Etoile in Paris in 1955 to the creation of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in 1987, the choreographer has marked Dance for ever.

Maurice Béjart is born in Marseille on January 1, 1927. He begins his 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, Les Ballets de l'Etoile. Noticed by Maurice Huisman, the new director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, in Brussels, he creates a triumphant The Rite of Spring (1959). In 1960 Maurice Béjart launches, in Brussels, Le 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, Le Ballet du XXe Siècle becomes the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and the great choreographer settles in the Olympic capital. In 1992, he decides to downsize his company to about thirty dancers to "recapture the essence of the performer" and 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, 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 passed away in Lausanne on November 22, 2007.