BÉJART BALLET LAUSANNE

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The Four Last Songs are Richard Strauss’s swan song, as well as that of a certain idea of Western classical music. In ‘Ist dies etwa der Tod?’ (named after the last words of Im Abendrot, the last of the Lieder), Béjart transcribes this deeply moving work in the form of a portrait of four women whom a man at death’s door sees again in turn. Of the fourth, however, he has only vague impressions… which intensify as his final hour approaches.

‘The Firebird is the Phoenix rising from the ashes. The poet, like the revolutionary, is a firebird’, said Béjart. For his choreography of Stravinsky’s ballet, Béjart abandoned the literal story of the tale to examine the symbolism of the figure of the Phoenix, and put it in resonance with that of the composer: an exiled musician, in the grip of a revolution in his country of origin, but himself a revolutionary through his music. The result is a choreography of flesh and movement, in which the body becomes an articulated puppet subjected to the turbulence of a music that never ceases to be physical. 

As for “Béjart et nous”, the company invites you on a dizzying journey, a voyage through the danced (and musical) repertoire of Maurice Béjart. A sensitive artistic proposition by Julien Favreau, an immersion into the eclectic and abundant work of the Master, interpreted by the dancers of his company today.