Description

Precisely fifteen years after Béjart’s death, this Presto covers the three stages of his fabulous career – Paris, Brussels, Lausanne – zigzagging between hard times and strokes of genius.

As a choreographer, director, author and producer, Maurice Béjart (1927-2007) never ceased to travel the globe on tour. He was French, considered taking Belgian nationality and finally became Swiss. “Where am I from? From where I work”, as this advocate of a dance without borders used to say, resonating with the song of the world. Many memories of his childhood in Marseilles had fuelled his work. But it was in Paris, Brussels and Lausanne that the showman asserted himself. Three cities, three fundamentally different periods. Trial runs in post-war Paris where he learned to dance and choreograph. Dramatic blows in the Belgian capital where he revolutionised the art of ballet. He made a splash with renewed creativity and honours in Lausanne.