Japan Performing Arts Foundation and the Béjart Ballet Lausanne regret to announce the definitive cancellation of the company’s tour in Japan next September. The unpredictable evolution of immigration restriction measures due to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the country does not allow the organization of the tour, which was to take the BBL to Nishinomiya, Sapporo and Tokyo from September 11 to 22.

All tickets will be refunded.

For more information, please contact us at english@nbs.or.jp

• Ticket holders for performances in Tokyo will be e-mailed with refund details.
• Ticket holders for the performance in Nishinomiya or Sapporo are kindly requested to check the organizers’ website.

Aware of the inconvenience caused, the two partners thank the public for their understanding and support. Japan Performing Arts Foundation thanks in advance the spectators who donate the amount of their ticket by giving up their reimbursement.

Japan Tour – Galas at the Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo

As part of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne’s tour in Japan, the company will be on stage at the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo for two exceptional galas on September 13, 2020 at 1 pm and 5 pm.

The company will start the event by presenting for the first time in Asia, Gil Roman‘s last creation – Tous les hommes presque toujours s’imaginent. Entirely choreographed to the music of 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. 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…

The second part will follow with Brel et Barbara created 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”…

The Gala will end with Boléro choreographed by Maurice Béjart in 1961, to the music of Maurice Ravel. The central role (La Mélodie) is sometimes given to a female dancer and other times to a male dancer. The rhythm is interpreted by a group of male dancers.