Hamlet by Valentina Turcu / Bye bye baby blackbird by Joost Vrouenraets, The Firebird and Boléro by Maurice Béjart at the GS Arts Center in Seoul, South Korea
After more than 25 years away, Béjart Ballet Lausanne makes its long-awaited return to Seoul with a series of exceptional performances. From April 23 to 26, the company will present two alternating programmes, combining contemporary creations with masterpieces from the repertoire of Maurice Béjart. Audiences will have the opportunity to discover either Hamlet by choreographer Valentina Turcu, followed by The Firebird and Boléro by Maurice Béjart, or Bye bye baby blackbird by Joost Vrouenraets, also followed by The Firebird and Boléro.
With Hamlet, Valentina Turcu offers a powerful and hypnotic reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, set to music by Max Richter. Deeply physical and metaphysical, the ballet reveals the torments, desires, and inner vertigo of universal characters, whose magnetic relationships take shape through movement and space.
As a guest choreographer, Dutch artist Joost Vrouenraets presents Bye bye baby blackbird, an intense and uncompromising work inspired by the deep and distinctive voice of Johnny Cash. Through a highly physical language and non-linear dramaturgy, the piece explores the raw emotions of loss, sustained by a constant tension between light and darkness.
In the second part of the evening, the programme continues with two iconic works by Maurice Béjart. The Firebird, set to the music of Igor Stravinsky, embodies the power of rebirth and vitality. As Béjart himself once said:
“The Firebird is the Phoenix reborn from its ashes, the bird of life and joy, immortal.”
The evening concludes with the legendary Boléro, created in 1961 to the hypnotic music of Maurice Ravel. Driven by a fascinating crescendo and a collective trance, this universal ballet remains one of the most emblematic works in the Béjart Ballet Lausanne repertoire.
In Seoul, the event will be even more significant as, for the first time, a Korean dancer — étoile Kimin Kim — will step onto the famous red table of Boléro during the performances on April 23 and 25.
