Deruytter (Béjart)
Maurice Béjart (1927 - 2007) is notably considered one of the most important choreographers of the 20th century. His revolutionary way to view dance changed the way we experience dance today!
In 1989 Wouter Deruytter was invited to go on tour with Maurice Béjart and travelled, continuing in 1990, with the group to Brussels, Paris, Lausanne, Venice and Cairo. From this collaboration, a beautiful and strong body of work emerged.
Works from Deruytter (Béjart)
Born in Marseille, he studied dance in London and Paris, danced at the Opéra de Paris, began increasingly to focus on choreography and became a leading choreographer in the mid 1950s, known for his avant-garde interpretations of classical works. He toured with various companies before founding his own, Les Ballets de l'Etoile (later Ballet Théâtre de Maurice Béjart), in Paris in 1954. It moved to the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg / Théatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels in 1960 and was renamed the Ballet of the 20th Century, one of the world's foremost ballets. After its departure from Brussls in 1987, the group was established in Switzerland as Béjart Ballet Lausanne.
In 1989 Wouter Deruytter was invited to go on tour with Maurice Béjart and travelled, continuing in 1990, with the group to Brussels, Paris, Lausanne, Venice and Cairo. From this collaboration, a beautiful and strong body of work emerged.
Wouter Deruytter said, "Not only is this work about dance but also about composition, about personal feelings radiating out of these sequences on stage. I feel so close to these images having had a truly artistic inspiration from living with the dance company, and Maurice Béjart became a friend and mentor. I feel the images express a fantasy of an ultimate beauty and fascination that one would like to step into.
Béjart told Deruytter at the time, "My language is dance (choreo). It is with this language that I write (graphy)," to which Deruytter responded by saying, "My language is photography. It is with this language that I write."
Wouter Deruytter, born in Belgium (Roeselare) in 1967, currently lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited extensively in prestigious venues as the Chelsea Art Museum in New York and Fondation Cartier in Paris. Also, his work has been included in many collections ranging from the private collection of Sir Elton John to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In 1989 Wouter Deruytter was invited to go on tour with Maurice Béjart and travelled, continuing in 1990, with the group to Brussels, Paris, Lausanne, Venice and Cairo. From this collaboration, a beautiful and strong body of work emerged.
Wouter Deruytter said, "Not only is this work about dance but also about composition, about personal feelings radiating out of these sequences on stage. I feel so close to these images having had a truly artistic inspiration from living with the dance company, and Maurice Béjart became a friend and mentor. I feel the images express a fantasy of an ultimate beauty and fascination that one would like to step into.
Béjart told Deruytter at the time, "My language is dance (choreo). It is with this language that I write (graphy)," to which Deruytter responded by saying, "My language is photography. It is with this language that I write."
Wouter Deruytter, born in Belgium (Roeselare) in 1967, currently lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited extensively in prestigious venues as the Chelsea Art Museum in New York and Fondation Cartier in Paris. Also, his work has been included in many collections ranging from the private collection of Sir Elton John to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.