Question 1

Who was Maurice Béjart and why is he important in the history of dance?

Accepted Answer

Maurice Béjart (1927-2007) was a French-Swiss dancer and choreographer who revolutionized dance in the 20th century. What makes him pivotal is that he managed to make dance accessible to the general public, taking it out of opera houses and bringing it into stadiums and circuses. Founder of the Ballet of the 20th Century and later the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, he created spectacular works such as Boléro and the Ninth Symphony, which drew thousands of spectators. Less an heir to classical ballet than an inventor of new forms, Béjart established a sensual, collective form of dance in which the body expresses universal emotions.

Question 2

What is Maurice Béjart's most famous work and why?

Accepted Answer

Béjart's most famous work is the Boléro (1961), set to the music of Maurice Ravel. What strikes you here is the powerful image of a single dancer, man or woman, alone on a large red table, surrounded by a circle of dancers who gradually come to life. The choreography, which became emblematic of the 20th century, was immortalized in Claude Lelouch's film Les Uns et les Autres (1981), danced by Jorge Donn. To understand its success, one must remember that Béjart wanted dance to speak to everyone: the Boléro, with its haunting melody and crescendo progression, is a metaphor for desire spreading through a crowd.

Question 3

How did Béjart transform dance to make it popular?

Accepted Answer

Béjart sought to bring dance down into the arena, literally. In 1964, he choreographed his Ninth Symphony by Beethoven not in a theatre, but at the Cirque Royal in Brussels, then in stadiums and sports arenas. The key point is that he wanted to reach thousands of spectators, including those who had never seen a ballet. He said himself: “I want dance to stop being an art reserved for an elite and to become a celebration once again.” This approach broadened the audience for contemporary dance and influenced many choreographers after him.

Question 4

What objects are associated with Maurice Béjart's work?

Accepted Answer

Several objects have become symbols of Béjart's world. The most famous is the red table from Boléro, a large circular table on which the soloist moves. He also used soft ballet slippers and tight-fitting tights and leotards, which highlighted the dancer's body. Finally, the ballet barre was an everyday tool at his Mudra school in Brussels, where dancers warmed up each morning. These objects, found in his shows and his studios, illustrate the importance of the body and movement in his art.

Question 5

What was daily life like for a choreographer such as Béjart?

Accepted Answer

Imagine a day set to the rhythm of dance. In the morning, Béjart began at the studio with the daily class: barre exercises and a warm-up with his company. The afternoon was devoted to rehearsals and creation: he guided the dancers, invented movements, and adjusted the sequences to the music. On performance evenings, he was on stage or in the wings; on other evenings, he read, listened to music, and thought about his future works. His life was organized around theatres and studios, in Brussels first, then in Lausanne from 1987 onwards.

Question 6

What are the significant places in Maurice Béjart's life?

Accepted Answer

Several places shaped Béjart's career. Marseille is his native city (1927). Paris saw him train in classical dance in the 1940s. But the key place is the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, where he founded the Ballet of the 20th Century in 1960 and created his major works. There he also opened the Mudra school in 1970. In 1987, after a disagreement with the Belgian authorities, he settled in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he created the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and where he died in 2007. These places show how his life followed the movements of his company.

Question 7

What is the most famous anecdote surrounding Béjart's Rite of Spring?

Accepted Answer

In 1959, Béjart created his Rite of Spring to the music of Stravinsky at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. What is striking is the immediate and unexpected success: the venue, accustomed to opera, became the cradle of his company, the Ballet of the 20th Century. There Béjart established a sensual, collective form of dance that broke with classical ballet. The key to this episode is that a single performance was enough to launch his international career and make Brussels a capital of contemporary dance.

Question 8

What specific vocabulary do you need to know to understand Béjart's work?

Accepted Answer

To explore Béjart's world, a few terms are essential. The choreographer is the one who invents the movements; the ballet is the dance performance. Contemporary dance, which he helped popularize, is a free form, less codified than classical ballet. A company is the troupe of permanent dancers. The soloist is the principal dancer, and a pas de deux is a duet. Finally, musique concrète, used in his first work Symphony for a Lonely Man (1955), is music composed from recorded sounds. This vocabulary helps grasp the modernity of his approach.

Question 9

What was the global context when Béjart began his career?

Accepted Answer

Béjart began his career after the Second World War, in 1945, in a Europe in the midst of cultural reconstruction. In 1959, he created the Rite of Spring in Brussels, at a time when contemporary dance was emerging as an art form in its own right. The 1960s were marked by artistic and social ferment: this is when Béjart founded the Ballet of the 20th Century (1960) and created the Boléro (1961). Later, in 1987, he left Brussels for Lausanne, amid tensions with the Belgian authorities. These global and local events influenced his path and his choices.

Question 10

What primary sources tell us about Maurice Béjart's thinking?

Accepted Answer

Several sources allow us to learn about Béjart's ideas. His memoirs, Un instant dans la vie d'autrui (1979), contain this key sentence: “Dance is above all the language of the body, the only language common to all of humankind.” Interviews from the 1960s reveal his desire to make dance popular: “I want dance to stop being an art reserved for an elite.” Finally, his *remarks on the Boléro*** (1961) explain the symbolism of the red table: “On a large red table, a melody: that is desire, and around it, the rhythm: those are the others who, little by little, let themselves be won over.”

Maurice Béjart(1927 — 2007)

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