Béjart, Maurice (1927- )

French choreographer and ballet director. Believing dance to be ‘total theatre’, he has staged huge, spectacular productions, for example Romeo and Juliet (1966). As director of his Ballet of the 20th Century (1960), based in Brussels until 1987, Béjart's productions included The Firebird (1970) (where the ballerina's role is taken by the male leader of a band of partisans) and Kabuki (1986), which features the suicide of 47 samurai in the finale. Other ballets include Bolero (1961), Notre Faust (1975), Ring Um Den Ring/The Ring of the Nibelung (1990), and M (1993).

His 1959 interpretation of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps first established his reputation as a choreographer of global fame.

He is also the founder of Mudra 1970, a school he named after the Hindu hand gestures, the full title of which is Centre européen de perfectionnement et de recherche des interprètes du spectacle/European Centre for Perfection and Research for Performing Artists. In 1987 he moved his base to Lausanne, Switzerland, and founded Béjart Ballet. His choreography generally centres on the male dancers in his company.