Dance is one of the rare fields of human activity in which a person is involved completely: body, soul, and mind.

These words of the great reformer of ballet, choreographer and director best reflect his attitude toward choreographic and ballet creation.

The French dancer and choreographer Maurice Béjart—for it is he who is meant—beloved by audiences, was a genius who revolutionized ballet. When, in the twentieth century, most major opera houses still presented classical ballet as a form of creation typical of the nineteenth century, the master was captivated by a vision that ballet, as a twentieth-century art form, should be as popular as cinema. Tolerant and open to drawing inspiration from various cultures and talents, he was ahead of his time.

For the contemporary ballet world, he became an unsurpassed master who, through his choreographic talent, great stage imagination, an excellent sense of dancers’ creative possibilities, and a remarkable intuition about the expectations of dance lovers, created choreographic works that effectively matched the tastes and expectations of audiences.

The audience in Łódź had the opportunity to encounter perhaps Béjart’s most popular ballet—Boléro (Béjart ballet) to the music of Maurice Ravel (1985). The image of its main performer—the magnificent Jorge Donn—remains vivid to this day for everyone who had the chance to attend that artistic event.

And the next celebration of dance? The Ballet Meetings are just around the corner…