Maurice BÉJART (George BALANCHINE)
Hommage à George Balanchine : "vous restez le repère absolu, le maître des anciens et des modernes, le livre où l'on vient apprendre"
Handwritten manuscript, tribute to Georges Balanchine
s. d. [ca 1983]|21 x 27.50 cm|deux feuillets
Handwritten manuscript, tribute to Georges Balanchine
A poignant eulogy for the choreographer Georges Balanchine, written by his fellow Maurice Béjart some days after Balanchine's disappearance on 30th April 1983.
Although stylistically they were far apart, both Balanchine and Béjart's creations revolutionized the art of dance. On Balanchine's death in 1983, Béjart wrote this moving tribute, which begins as follows: “Where are you tonight Georges Balanchine? I want to write to you and, although the radio, the press and the media are saying that you have disappeared, I know that, like the cats you love so much, you have nine lives and that right now you will be choreographing Stravinsky's last work or such a stellar concerto that we poor earthlings still don't know.” He, who was known as “Mr B,” founder of the New York City Ballet, was responsible for ballet's renewal through its clarity, its breakdown and its relationship to the music. Béjart and he shared a taste for costume simplicity, and both advocated in their choreographies the uncompromising purity of the lines.
Béjart summarises the paradox that was Balanchine in a few lines: “but I know that you are the only choreographer because you are unique, always imitated but inimitable, the most classic, the most modern, the most rigorous, the most free, the most abstract, the most lyrical, the most inventive, the most musical, the most precise, the most unusual, the most obvious.”
He finishes of this admirable eulogy with a beautiful farewell: “See you soon then, because we have so much to learn.”
Provenance: Maurice Béjart's personal archives.
N. d. [1983], 21 x 27,5 cm, loose leaves
A handwritten manuscript by Maurice Béjart, 40 lines written in blue ink on two leaves stapled together.A poignant eulogy for the choreographer Georges Balanchine, written by his fellow Maurice Béjart some days after Balanchine's disappearance on 30th April 1983.
Although stylistically they were far apart, both Balanchine and Béjart's creations revolutionized the art of dance. On Balanchine's death in 1983, Béjart wrote this moving tribute, which begins as follows: “Where are you tonight Georges Balanchine? I want to write to you and, although the radio, the press and the media are saying that you have disappeared, I know that, like the cats you love so much, you have nine lives and that right now you will be choreographing Stravinsky's last work or such a stellar concerto that we poor earthlings still don't know.” He, who was known as “Mr B,” founder of the New York City Ballet, was responsible for ballet's renewal through its clarity, its breakdown and its relationship to the music. Béjart and he shared a taste for costume simplicity, and both advocated in their choreographies the uncompromising purity of the lines.
Béjart summarises the paradox that was Balanchine in a few lines: “but I know that you are the only choreographer because you are unique, always imitated but inimitable, the most classic, the most modern, the most rigorous, the most free, the most abstract, the most lyrical, the most inventive, the most musical, the most precise, the most unusual, the most obvious.”
He finishes of this admirable eulogy with a beautiful farewell: “See you soon then, because we have so much to learn.”
Provenance: Maurice Béjart's personal archives.
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