Four years after its last performance at the Opéra de Lausanne, Béjart Ballet Lausanne presents the world premiere of Tous les hommes presque toujours s’imaginent – Gil Roman‘s new creation, and Maurice Béjart‘s Brel et Barbara.

Tous les hommes presque toujours s’imaginent* entirely choreographed to the music of New York composer John Zorn, one of the leading composers of contemporary American music. The density and diversity of his extraordinary work, which began in the mid-1970s, as well as the audacity and artistic freedom he expressed through his craft, never ceased to challenge and fascinate the artistic director of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne. It was written that a meeting between the avant-garde musician and the choreographer would happen…

January 2016, the Village, New York. The two artists exchange for the first time about their respective artistic experiences, cultural heritage, and desire to transcend it and free themselves from it in order to push back the boundaries of art. The conversation is meaningful, rich, and passionate. Naturally, Gil Roman shares with him his desire to use his music for one of his ballets. The appointment is set….

2018, the Béjart Ballet Lausanne studio, Lausanne. Facing a considerable body of work, Gil Roman immerses himself in the various compositions making up the universe that the brilliant multi-instrumentalist has explored from 1990 to 2017… Step by step, with a movement, a gesture, Gil Roman brings his dancers beyond the walls…

Brel et Barbara was created in 2001 by Maurice Béjart. “For the last 35 years, my loyal friend and sister BARBARA has been telling me: ‘I am the black light!’ So I created a choreography about L’Aigle Noir. She then played in a movie called Je suis né à Venise, in which she was given the lead role, a character called the Bright Night, while Jorge Donn interpreted the Sun.

I met BREL in Brussels, where I was living at the time with my dance company. He was starring in Man of La Mancha at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. He told me that ‘Someday, we will do something with Barbara and I…” – Maurice Béjart

*Gil Roman thanks the rights holders of Ludwig Hohl and Editions de l’Aire for making the title available.

**Beware of the grey ticketing market: Béjart Ballet Lausanne cannot be held responsible for any purchase of show tickets outside the ticket offices officially mentioned on the website.