B comme béjart

In 1960, the Swiss choreographer Maurice Béjart made a ballet based on Ravel’s Bolero. In 2001, at the age of 75, he works on Lumière, a ballet about light, set to music by Bach, Brel and Barbara. The Swiss director Marcel Schüpbach followed him during rehearsals, progress discussions, deliberations with the costume designer, in short, his search through what he himself calls ‘the labyrinth of the creative process’. More than forty years after his first ballet, Béjart says he still suffers the same agonies and still has the same stage fright during the materialisation of a ballet – perhaps even more. Most of the time, he is strict and concentrated, sometimes impatient and moody. The camera follows his struggles and shows the hard work and the fairytale-like result. Not only from the audience, but also from the wings, where the master’s watchful eye follows the performance of his pupils. He dislikes interviews, but now and then has time for a short question and clarifies what he does and thinks. It is no coincidence that he has become a choreographer, he explains. It was already obvious at an early age. He wanted to become a director and a dancer; if you add those two together, you get a choreographer.