Maurice Béjart: Le Presbytère. Ballet for life

Festival Ljubljana 2010

Choreography: Maurice Bejart
Artistic leader: Gil Roman
Music: Queen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Costumes: Gianni Versace
Lighting: Dominique Roman
Video editing: Germaine Cohen

Béjart Ballet Lausanne

Duration of the performance is approx. 1 hr and 45 min, without interval.

In cooperation with: ATER-Associazione Teatrale Emilia Romagna

A little over thirty years ago, against the surprising backdrop of the music of Berlioz interspersed with bombing and the sound of machine guns, an unconventional Friar Lawrence cried out to Jorge Donn and Hitomi Asakawa: “Make love, not war!”

Today, Gil Roman, who is about the same age as the creation of my Romeo and Juliet, surrounded by dancers who have never seen this ballet, answers: “You told us to make love, not war. We made love. Why is love waging war on us?”

A cry from the youth, for whom the problem of death by love is added to that of the multiple
wars that have never ceased in the world since the so-called end of the last World War!
Above all, my ballets are encounters: with music, with life, with death, with love… with all
those whose life and works find a renewal within me. Moreover, the dancer who I am no
longer is reincarnated each time by the dancers who surpass this former self.

A love affair with the music of Queen. Invention, violence, humor, love: it is all there. I love
the group. They inspire me and guide me, sometimes through this no man’s land where we
will all go one day and where, I am sure, Freddie Mercury is playing a duet on the piano with
Mozart.

A ballet about youth and hope, as hopeless and optimistic as they are. Despite everything, I
believe that “the show must go on”, as Queen put it in one of their songs.

Son of philosopher Gaston Berger, Maurice Béjart was born on January 1, 1927 in Marseille (France). He made his debut, first as a dancer and then as a choreographer, in Paris. In 1960, he formed his own company, the Ballet du XXe Siècle, in Brussels (Belgium). 25 years later, the troupe relocated to Lausanne (Switzerland) to be renamed Béjart Ballet Lausanne. Maurice Béjart puts down roots wherever his work takes him. It was during a tour with the Swedish Ballet Culberg (1949) that he discovered his strength for expression through choreography. Shortly afterwards, while working on a Swedish film production, he met Igor Stravinsky for the first time. His first great triumph came in 1959, when Béjart created his monumental Rite of Spring for Maurice Huisman, the new director of Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. This ballet paved the way for the launch of Ballet du XXe siècle in 1960, which triumphed on numerous worldwide tours. The Rite of Spring was followed by his most famous work to this day, Ravel’s Bolero (1961),and later by Messe pour le temps présent (1967) and The Firebird (1970). Developing a marked taste for cultural diversity, Béjart went on to create works that expressed the core of different civilizations in the form of dance (Bhakti, Golestan, Kabuki, Dibouk, Pyramide) and illustrated a rich musical repertoire extending from Wagner to Boulez. A natural teacher, Béjart founded the Mudra School in Brussels in 1970, and then in Dakar seven years later. In 1992, the Rudra School and Workshop opened its doors in Lausanne.

The transformation of Ballet du XXe siècle into Béjart Ballet Lausanne (1987) took place without interruption. In 1992,in order to rediscover the essence of interpretation, the size of the company was trimmed to about thirty dancers. This move was followed by numerous ballets created for the new troupe: Ring um den Ring, Le Mandarin Merveilleux, King Lear – Prospero, A propos de Shéhérazade, Le Presbytère... ! , ...  As well as directing plays (La Reine verte, Casta Diva, A-6-Roc), operas (Salomé, La Traviata, Don Giovanni) and films (Bhakti, Paradoxe sur le comédien). In August 2002, he created a new troupe for young dancers, Compagnie M, and his new ballet Mère Teresa et les enfants du monde. It premiered in Lausanne at the Théâtre de Beaulieu on October 18. In October 2003, he paid homage to Fellini on the tenth anniversary of his death, with Ciao Federico. He received the insignia of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from the Ambassador of France to Switzerland. 2004 marked the 50th anniversary of his role as director of the company. He then staged L’Art d’être grand-père together with the young dancers of the troupe. In 2005, he creates L’Amour-la Danse, a show featuring over ten scenes of his greatest ballets, and also Zarathoustra, le Chant de la Danse, his most recent major worldwide creation. In 2006, on the eve of Maurice Béjart’s eightieth birthday, he 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 on November 22, 2007.