Maurice Béjart
Maurice Béjart Maurice- Jean Berger actually, ( born January 1, 1927 in Marseille, † 22 November 2007 in Lausanne, Switzerland ) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer. Béjart is considered an innovator of neoclassical ballet. He directed it towards the end of the 1960s as a " spectacle total" ( " total theater "), a work of art from different language, music, dance and directing. With image- rich and spectacular performances, he explores the ballet to new audiences. Béjart emancipated the male dancers of their secondary role as a lifting partner of ballerinas and also allowed them a sensitive subjectivity on the stage.
- 2.1 École Mudra
- 2.2 Ecole Rudra
Biography
Education and early years
Béjart was born the son of the philosopher Gaston Berger in Marseille. His father came from a poor family, he first worked as a fertilizer representatives to Chinese taught, then became a teacher and eventually Secretary of State for the university system. After an accident, a doctor prescribed the young Maurice exercises in classical dance for medical rehabilitation. So that his passion for dance was awakened.
His public debut as a dancer he had at the age of 14 years at the Opéra National de Paris, where Roland Petit danced. After the licentiate, he passed the family name and called himself Béjart, after a famous acting dynasty of the 17th century, which occurred with Molière. In some reports, the mother's maiden name is given as Béjart; she died when he was only seven years old. He came first in France in companies of Janine Charrat and Roland Petit on, later in the " International Ballet London" and the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm.
In 1951 he created his first choreography there, L' Inconnu ( The Unknown ). In 1955 he choreographed symphony pour un homme seul ( Symphony for a lonely man ) for his own company, the Ballets de l' Étoile. The piece, whose music was composed by Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, won him recognition from the public and the critics.
Career in Brussels
In 1960, Maurice Huisman, then director at the Brussels opera house Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie / Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, for the Béjart the award-winning choreography for Le sacre du printemps created, attentive to him. The choreographer was given a permanent position at the house and founded Huisman support the Ballet du XXe siècle there, with whom he toured the world. Famous productions from this period are (among others Boléro ), made famous by Jorge Donn as a soloist, fair pour le temps présent and L' Oiseau de feu (1970). In the 1960s, Béjart abolished the traditional tulle tutu and let the dancers occur in jeans.
Moving to Lausanne
Since the required funds were not granted, the converted according to his work for the Shiraz Art Festival to Islam choreographer moved in 1987 established his company to Lausanne and renamed it to Béjart Ballet Lausanne.
In 1998, he was sentenced by law for a plagiarism. His play Le Presbytery ... contained a scene that La chute d' Icare ( The fall of Icarus ) of the Belgian choreographer Frédéric Flamand was taken. Béjart Ballet revised and renamed it in Ballet for Life. The film won the 1998 recording to the Festival Rose d'Or, the " Silver Rose for Art & Specials". Béjart in 1999 was honored with the Kyoto Prize.
Style and influence
Béjart had and has a strong, but also polarizing influence on the ballet, the critics and public. He used an eclectic style, which was made up from many directions and inclined to pathos, mysticism and hero worship. Mythical figures, gods, artists and foreign cultures are subjects of his art. Through this powerful image, immediately accessible subjects he made a major contribution to the ballet and reached a wider audience. With the " Ballet du XXe siècle " he renewed the neoclassical style.
Béjart had great influence on the Iranian ballet for which he created several choreographies within the Shiraz Art Festival. In Festival 1971 he created a ballet based on the poem by Saadi Golestan. Another piece he named Farah, in honor of the founder of the Shiraz Art Festival Schahbanu Farah Pahlavi.
Teaching
École Mudra
Béjart was very successful and influential as a teacher. His student and later partner, Jorge Donn had become by working with him to stardom. In 1970, Béjart the École Mudra in Brussels to teach young talents in the art of dance. From this school, which existed until 1988, going a whole lot of dancers and choreographers forth that influence the further development of contemporary dance in Europe, including Maguy Marin, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Enzo Cosimi. In 1977 he founded in Dakar, the École Mudra Afrique, which existed until 1985.
Ecole Rudra
In 1992, after moving to Lausanne, where he founded the Béjart Ecole- Atelier Rudra, which is one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world of classical and modern dance since then.
Quote
" Béjart was immensely important for the redefinition of classical dance. " He stole a whole new audience for classical dance, " because he has done it in a revolutionary direction without destroying the classical roots. "