![\"Bejart](\"https:\/\/www.gulftoday.ae\/gulftoday\/uploads\/images\/2026\/02\/26\/1056362.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThirty-six dancers with raised arms glide slowly forward as they encircle their prey, a lone figure on a red table in a climactic scene from Ravel\u2019s \u201cBolero\u201d choreographed by Maurice Bejart. Marked by its stark staging and ritualistic intensity, the work remains one of the most enduring interpretations of Ravel\u2019s best-known work and continues to captivate audiences worldwide. Once again, the Bejart Ballet Lausanne (BBL) \u2014 which was in Istanbul to kick off a new international tour \u2014 closed each of its four performances with the monumental \u201cBolero.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 15-minute orchestral piece has inspired seven different choreographies, but is most widely associated with the version created by Bejart, which remains the best known. \u201cWe call it a table, but it could be an altar or a pyre,\u201d Julien Favreau, BBL\u2019s artistic director, told AFP as he contemplated the 4.5-metre-diameter red structure which folds up like a camping table so it can travel around the world.<\/p>\n
Favreau, who joined the BBL at the age of 17, danced his last Bolero in June 2024 in Tokyo, just before taking over the reins of the company, aged 47. In his experience, performing this work meant everything. \u201cFor a dancer, it is the ultimate achievement, the crowning glory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But the work is very demanding. \u201cThe main difficulty is respecting the score\u2019s crescendo and keeping your energy and strength intact until the big leaps, when your legs start to burn,\u201d he said. Memorising the choreography without being able to rely on variations in the music \u2014 whose melody and rhythmic pattern hardly changes \u2014 is another challenge.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Julien Favreau, artistic director of the ‘Bejart Ballet Lausanne’ of Switzerland, poses during an interview. Photos: Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people ask for a teleprompter that displays the ballet sequences, but not at the BBL!\u201d he laughs. Towards the end, the whole body of dancers becomes engaged, menacing as they approach, their tense stomachs flexing as if hungry.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to Maurice Bejart\u2019s interpretation, the soloist represents the melody who knows from the outset he\u2019s going to die,\u201d explained Favreau, who speaks of the figure being \u201cslain\u201d, the dancers acting like a \u201cdeadly jaw\u201d that closes in. Created in 1961 for a female soloist, it was later adapted in 1979 for the Argentine star dancer Jorge Donn, Bejart\u2019s partner.<\/p>\n
Today, the role is played by a woman, with performances rotating between three different performers \u2014 although a male dancer is expected to join them soon.<\/p>\n
He will join an illustrious lineup that includes the late French ballet legend Patrick Dupont, former Paris Opera star Nicolas Le Riche and its current star, Hugo Marchand. \u201cThe main thing is ultimately to show who you are,\u201d said Favreau.<\/p>\n
Also on Swiss ballet troupe\u2019s Istanbul programme was another classic Bejart interpretation of Stravinsky\u2019s \u201cFirebird\u201d \u2014 but the performance opened with a new work: \u201cOskar\u201d.<\/p>\n
Performed for the first time abroad, it is a frenzied work choreographed by Italian duo Riva & Repele which brings virtually the entire 40-strong ensemble onto stage, dressed in red.<\/p>\n
It weaves the tale of a solitary artist whose dreams come up against the hard walls of reality \u2014 effectively the life story of the lead performer Colombian dancer Oscar Chacon who joined BBL in 2004 and has performed its entire repertoire.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a ballet created especially for me, a reflection of my own life,\u201d he told AFP. \u201cI too am a street artist .. To come to Europe, I had to overcome barriers and travel long distances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Favreau was keen to invite outside choreographers \u201cto highlight the company\u2019s technical and artistic qualities and show it could do more than just Bejart\u201d. When he took over in June 2024, Favreau inherited a ballet company shaken by allegations of harassment with a tarnished reputation and financial difficulties.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a period when we all suffered greatly, but it brought us together and made us stronger. And today, we\u2019re touring more, our finances are in good shape, the overall atmosphere is great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There are 17 different nationalities among the dancers, who range in age between 17 and over 50, their experience further enriched by dancers who joined since the Russia-Ukraine war began exactly four years ago.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, \u201cYellow Letters,\u201d directed by German filmmaker Ilker Catak, won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday in a ceremony reflecting the controversy over Gaza which has dogged this year\u2019s edition of the event. A political drama, Catak\u2019s film tells the story of a Turkish director and his actor wife, suddenly barred from working because of their political opinions.<\/p>\n
Jury president Wim Wenders called the film \u201ca terrifying premonition, a look into the near future that could possibly happen in our countries as well\u201d. \u201cThis is a movie that speaks up very clearly about the political language of totalitarianism as opposed to the empathetic language of cinema,\u201d Wenders said. Catak called Wenders \u201cone of my teachers\u201d, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s such an incredible thing to receive this award from you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at a press conference at the beginning of the festival last week, jury president Wim Wenders answered a question about the German government\u2019s support for Israel by saying: \u201cWe cannot really enter the field of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same press conference, he had said that films had the power to \u201cchange the world\u201d but in a different way from politics.<\/p>\n
But his comments in response to the question on Israel prompted a storm of outrage. Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, who had been due to present a restored version of a 1989 film she wrote, pulled out of the event, branding Wenders\u2019 words \u201cunconscionable\u201d and \u201cjaw-dropping\u201d.<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirty-six dancers with raised arms glide slowly forward as they encircle their prey, a lone figure on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[12874,10960,94,12876,12875],"class_list":{"0":"post-19616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lausanne","8":"tag-bejart-ballet-lausanne","9":"tag-istanbul","10":"tag-lausanne","11":"tag-showbuzz","12":"tag-turkey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}