Maurice Béjart

A giant of dance

Born in Marseille in 1927, Maurice Béjart overturned 20th-century ballet by taking it out of hushed theatres and into stadiums and sports arenas, before thousands of spectators. He created works that became legendary: his “Boléro” to the music of Ravel, danced on a large red table, his “Rite of Spring” to Stravinsky, and his “Ninth Symphony” by Beethoven. After the Ballet du XXe siècle in Brussels, he moved his company to Lausanne and, in 1987, founded the Béjart Ballet Lausanne.

Ballet for Life, the tribute to Freddie Mercury

In 1996, inspired by the album “Made in Heaven” and by the wish to shine a light on the tragedy of AIDS, Maurice Béjart conceived “Ballet for Life” (in the original French, “Le Presbytère n’a rien perdu de son charme, ni le jardin de son éclat”), to the music of Queen and Mozart. The work pays tribute to two artists who died at forty-five: Freddie Mercury and Jorge Donn, his company’s principal dancer. It all began in Montreux. In the “The Greatest ↗” episode of Queen’s archive series, Roger Taylor recalls: “I met Maurice Béjart at the unveiling of the statue to Freddie. He was an entrancing man; his steely blue eyes lit up and his enthusiasm would carry you along.” And Brian May adds: “How could we possibly say no to a giant of another discipline coming to us and asking if he could use our music?”

Béjart entrusted the costumes to his friend Gianni Versace, true to the black and white Queen wore on stage, and refused all pathos. “I see it as a joyful ballet, neither sinister nor defeatist,” he explained in the show’s press release ↗. “It’s not a ballet about death, but about people who died too early.” To “It’s a Beautiful Day”, “I Was Born to Love You” or “The Show Must Go On”, the dance embraces the emotion of the songs.

He himself described love at first sight, in a text published by the Béjart Ballet Lausanne ↗: “Love at first sight for the music of Queen. Invention, violence, humour, love, it’s all there. I love them, they inspire me, they guide me and, from time to time, in that no man’s land where we will all go one day, Freddie Mercury, I’m sure, sits down at the piano with Mozart.” An incorrigible optimist, he wanted a ballet about youth and hope, “because, in spite of everything, the show must go on, as Queen sing.”

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The public premiere took place in January 1997 at the Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris: the three surviving members of Queen played there alongside Elton John, in what would be John Deacon’s last stage appearance. Filmed in Lausanne that same year, the show still tours the world and was released on DVD in 2019, in aid of the Mercury Phoenix Trust. “It changed the way we felt about the continuing life of Queen music in the world,” says Brian May in “The Greatest ↗”. “I’m very proud of that moment when Queen, Mozart and Maurice Béjart came together in one place.”

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By the lake, between Lausanne and Montreux

Béjart loved the Riviera. He had a chalet at Veytaux, a stone’s throw from the Château de Chillon, and was among the faithful guests of the Palais Oriental in Montreux. Like other great names of dance, he was cared for at the Clinique Valmont, on the heights of Glion. He died in Lausanne in 2007, leaving a company that still bears his name and keeps dance alive on Lake Geneva, season after season.

His chalet at Sonchaux

For many years, Maurice Béjart made his refuge of a chalet perched at Sonchaux, on the heights of Montreux-Veytaux. An old sheepfold renovated and extended in 1970, the wooden house overlooks the lake and the mountains, facing south-west, away from all bustle. The choreographer who filled stadiums found there silence, mountain air and sunsets over Lake Geneva.

Close by stands the Auberge de Sonchaux, and the trails set off towards the Rochers-de-Naye or towards Caux. Between tours around the world, it was here, facing the mountain and a few minutes from Montreux and the Château de Chillon, that the man of dance came back to recharge.