In three ballets, the great lesson of Maurice Bjart

It

Bjart himself, a few months before his disappearance, which had designed the program: Would opening with this death? in its 1979 version, already in the repertoire of the Paris Opera, continued with The Firebird, created for Michael Denard and the Ballet de l'Opera de Paris in 1970 and closing with The Rite of Spring, entered directory in 1965.

Common these ballets? They make up perhaps the strongest time in the history of Bjart Ballet and Opera. And belong to this particular vein Bjart it as a person: the love of pure gesture, exalted by the music. Neither Falbala or decor: the dance is everything. And when the interpretation is perfect, as was the case Monday evening, the dance seems directing music, silence, space, geometry, everything flows from it with such clarity that the simple game or an elbow a foot makes legible the mysteries of the human soul with a depth that touches the viewer to his flesh.

This, director of the Bjart Ballet Lausanne, invited to dance Adagietto, for unfortunately evening, which gives this masterful lesson Bjart. Torso large - as in Bjart, he dance for thirty years, all movements start plexus - the dancer 48 years magnifies all principles of choreographer. Devouring space, with dancing eyes, measure its greatest gesture of throwing the hand that simple returns, everything has meaning and any fly. Bjart whole is reflected in the Adagietto also subtly controlled: the great humanist wise but also the terrible, between and tenderness. Bjart, god and devil at a time.

United, fair, honest, accurate

The Opera Ballet is up to the task. And yet the party was not won. Is it the academic colors for the past Sacre for acid or Is this death? Or truss the bird? It hangs over these ballets, created between 1959 and 1970, a small air the Opera Ballet aside by the conviction with which it bears this out.

Bjart is more than a year but his shadow still galvanizes dancers, soloists and corps de ballet. United, fair, honest, accurate, in a word inhabited, they travel to the eternity of the human condition through the concerns that these three ballets. And soloists can be invaded, with a surprising humility, these feelings then, without ever wanting to gain the spotlight.

With Could this be death?, A man said goodbye to three women that he loved, led by an unknown white guide to the mystery. Nicolas Le Riche, woven into tenderness, touches so it seems driven by memories and the irresistible temptation of a new adventure. In The Firebird, Benjamin Pech is a suicide bomber bright, beautiful arms and open heart, affecting in the farewell and sacrifice. Perfectly pure and female, so Bjartienne pure juice, Clairemarie Osta is elected Sacre Blingard with Jeremiah, and no one knows who admire the most, soloists or corps de ballet. Fifty years after its inception, it remains a formidable punch. Opera Bastille, until 29 December. "The Firebird" and "Bolero", 30 and 31 December.