Maurice Bejart - Romeo et Juliette

[Themaynah]

0:50 Reminds me of the death of Jorge Donn

[lasonyalafevers]

nice channel :)) thanks for sharing

[BronYuDawson]

this is one of my favourite video to watch on youtube! that was amazing!!!

[COLOMBANIPM]

SUBLIME

[sammyke49]

amezing !!!! great !!!

[PrincesssPhibi]

sehr schööön...

[dubb2205]

this is AMAZING! i LOVE her!

[RiesenWuschel]

Okay, i think this is too much make-up. It makes them look like puppets- or worst case cenario- like here- men like women. I'm not antihomosexual- but this is supposed to be ROMEO for gods sake! o.o

[chimaera198]

The reason people wear so much make up on stage is because from the audience (fairly far away) it looks more normal. Stage make up always looks weird close up. And this video frequently zooms in much farther than an audience member would be.

[josianeth]

Maravilhoso, incrivel. Amei.

[fishyfish4444]

Bejart's company men wear a lot of make-up. Does anyone know if this is due to Mr. Bejart's preferences, or the preferences of the individual artists?

Thank you.

[dansedu92]

Both: Mr.Béjart likes make-up to renforce expression of dancers and they like it too

[manicdancelover]

Sorry some people can't appreciate this unconventional ballerina.

[soledemina1]

enlevée la poussière....finalement...Rome­o et Juliette jeunes de nouveau ...Merci Béjart

[soledemina1]

quelle perfection..et quelle intensité de sentiments...Béjart est incomparable et ses interprètes superbes ...

[foxypablo1234]

I am with you Atlantaballerina... Suzanne Farrell looks too old and not very clean in this piece. Eww.

[ItsBlendera]

Beauty and the beast?

[loulotte161087]

@ItsBlendera no Romeo and Juliet

XD not exactly the same

[ItsBlendera]

@loulotte161087  Haha xP

[Atlantaballerina]

I really do not understand what was so amazing about suzanne farrell, I never have taken a fancy to her or her work.

[JRhuewing]

Instead of giving you a thumbs down i thought i would talk about Suzzane's ability to use her imperfections and not try to hide them coupled with her extreme musicality she gave ballet a sublime humane quailty instead of a tinker toy ballerina.

[mermew]

In my previous comment, don't focus just on my last line; it sounds as if I think Donn's capability in handling Bejart's choreography is only his strong partnering skill. That's not what I meant. I was just surprised to see Farrell and Donn paired together, with Donn in a supporting role. I stand by my initial impression that both dancers show 'technical prowess with moments of artistic brilliance'. IMO, Farrell and Donn make an elegant pairing of accomplished dancers.

[mermew]

Really like this choreography for a change... quite a departure from MacMillan. Farrell and Donn make an interesting pair: technical prowess with moments of artistic brilliance in their performance. I especially like Farrell's long, clean line and silky movement; Donn partner's her very well.

[DancerPumpkin08]

i took a master class with her today at eastern michigan university!!!! she is great!!!!

[MissKriekentaart]

That's like the worst moment possible for the video to stop, I want to see what happens next :'(

[MrPongsatorn]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[mialyz]

Todos os bailados e coreografias de Donn e Béjart, transcendem o que é comum. Eles foram e continuam a ser, verdadeiros deuses da arte. Aqui estão as estrelas, que ainda brilham na terra.!

[karmie03]

Does anyone have any other Suzanne Farrel clips that are not of the muppets?

[rozirda]

I fail to see the magic here. The dancers are alright, but the choreography is - um - actually rather hideous. Really not my cup of tea.

[taurusbs]

I am right with you about coreography.

I am not a Bejart ballet lover, but is the unique video on youtube ( apart the muppet ones) in which you can see the marvelous Suzanne Farrel.

She was not lyrical or dramatic as Bejart tried to turned her.

She was a musical instrument in the balanchine ballet.

Of course nobody can dance everything.

Instead I've never liked Jorge Donn.....sorry

[grifffinity]

The Choreography is mostly crap - for sure. I'm not a Bejart fan. I am a Farrell fan though - and to understand what made her so great, you should watch the other clips of Bejarts' R&J danced by other ballerina's.

What made Farrell different is that she never poses. Her body is always moving...even if its just a tiny finger. She is never static - and that is what dance is...the movement between "poses". See 1:20 - 1:30. Only Farrell moved her arms! Others posed!

[peanutmmss]

I love his choreo! i think it's brill...i guess to each his own

[vanillabean001]

I liked your bluntness. I agree. :P

[taurusbs]

Suzanne was the "goddes of dance"....

[540mph]

I love this clip and love suzanne! i read her bio a few years ago and wrote a fanmail letter-nothing different than what she probably usually gets if fans write her, and I didn't ask for an autogrpah, I just wanted her to read my letter. A few weeks later in the mail I opened this huge manila size envelope and there's a beautiful photograph of her in black and white and she wrote 'To Nicole, welcoming you to the wonderful world of Balanchine Ballet, Sincerley, Suzanne Farrell.she's so beautiful.

[mrgregoryp]

@540mph she is divine, that is lovely that she sent that to you and nice of you to post that. American treasure to be cherished!

[scgalhjl]

@540mph i am in love with her too!!!! soo pretty and graceful. i have her documentary about her and george ballenchine! aahhmazing!

[ballet23]

in person shes really crazy lol. she told me a ghost threw a book at her

[SvetlanaZakharova123]

I wish I could have her career. Discovered at like 15, principal at 18, she lived the dream of many a young dancer. She is a role model and an insparation to all of us.

[win081]

Simply beautiful! Bejart is a super choreographer!

Thanks for uploading!

[coasterman16]

Donn looks like a werewolf with those sideburns lol

[austinrocks26]

She just got better over the years. Suzanne is the queen! The best and a good role model for young dancers.

[maimrozek]

Great performance; pure magie.

[tutugirl4life]

1:23 is so beautiful

[balletbu]

there were rumors that they dated!!!!! wen she was 18 tho!!!! she is nice

[prettyinpointe]

Yep, she talks about it in in a movie that is a biography. She is very open about discussing it in her interviews.

[imadeadoodee]

oh dear ! whats with his makeup he looks like he jumped out of cats !

Shes very beautiful

[balletbu]

ii took a class from her. she is older now but she is soooo nice.

[Lehndorff]

Superbe Video !

By tha way: Does anyone know(have)a piece from Béjart's "Blue Danube" with Maria Haydée ?

Or of his ballet "47 Samurais"  ?

[mikmare44]

Thank you so much for these videos. A true gift. Transformative.  Arpita

[love4ballet]

this is so inspiring because suzanne farrell danced at my dance school before she became a professional ! :)

[soundzgreg]

great....

[rolandas1985]

Talent progresion.

[madforgorky]

Jorge Donn deserves a little recognition here, too. He's Suzanne's equal -- so musical, an elegant line, an excellent actor, and a strong partner.

[rkhobo]

Suzanne Farrel was the best ballet dancer of her time and the best at Balanchine! This is lovely. Her career was with the New York City Ballet, but she was from my hometown of Cincinnati, and they just had a huge gala honoring her last Summer!

[spunsilver]

Choreo is trivial, but Berlioz is beautiful and Farrell is riveting. Backbend in R&J?? I do like her little running steps. What's with Jorge Dunn's makeup?

[balletnut]

Put two genius together and what do you get - perfection.

[toeknee1965]

balanchine was a genius and so was suzanne farrel. and to see her with jorge donn. also a great artist and performer.

it was interesting to find out that she did not like to rehearse so much. if it is true. but i imagine yeah. and that she did different things all the time. being so musical it allowed her to improvise her way out of situations. i watch dancers fall out of things all the time these days. and i think....just dance out of it. anyways thanks suzanne !!!

[chocolatesouljah]

Hi, I hadn't heard that she disliked rehearsal. One thing I know that at Bejart to save money they women didn't rehearse in pointe shoes. Farrell used to NYCB insisted otherwise. While she danced with Bejart she was very respectful but quite homesick for NYCB. Where she of course she eventually returned.

[balletbu]

I took a workshop at FSu last year and I took a class with suzanne farrell!!!it wuz cool!!!

[butifarra61]

and finally this ballet is awful? the lifts on 110 &309 are just weird...they represent the sensual but this 'love' was about infatuation, PUPPY love of the young!? The one dimensional love of the young...when there is no sense of the complexity of the other, either in romance or sexually? This dance is a lot more appropiate for 'carmen'?

[butifarra61]

a past comment on the underuse of these muses later on in the dance world? Well, to have danced for balanchine really do not make you an expert on running a company? Look at martins w/nycb, he is a great director but he lacks the talent when it comes to great choreography. And now nycb does not take the imaginative or creative risks that it did under mr.b. It is more like a museum than a genarator of great ballets...

[grifffinity]

I generally agree with your comments, however Peter Martins had/has no clue how to run NYCB. He casts based on longevity - a system of fairness, not on actual talent. He cast away Suzanne Farrell and other former dancers under Mr. B, refusing to use them. He is jealous and insecure that he never fully understood Balanchine.

[ketchikan40]

There is a passage in "Elusive Muse" that is (if I remember correctly) the first known recording of Farrell in rehearsal with Balanchine. She is very young, maybe 15. It is absolutely electrifying. She was able to turn the molecules in the air inside out, even at that young age.

[grifffinity]

Are you talking about the Movements for Piano and Orchestra rehearsal? She was 17 at the time...and indeed electrifying. The Balanchine DVD has some stage performance footage of that work from the same period.

[mad0line]

Yep. Met her, a few times

[tinymavy]

ballanchine was a genius.

[Jayjen35]

How dare anyone give this comment a thumbs down, except of course if they meant that this clip is not from a Balanchine ballet!

[AcemanJones]

wow that choreography looks an awful lot like Apollo.

[augustbeach1]

I'm sorry, what I attributed to European dancers were Suzanne's arms and how she used them. I didn't mean to include the long legs as typically European but I can see how you could misinterpret what I wrote. I met Margot Fonteyn and she was very small (compared to me!).

[augustbeach1]

It's easy to see why Balanchine liked Farrell so much, her incredibly long, tapered legs and expressive arms are the closest I've seen in an American ballerina to a European. The lifts are wonderful, but let's face it, he would have been dead by the final note if she was a chunky monkey!

[kdub10009]

actually, before balanchine, dancers as tall as Suzanne were usually thought to be unsuited to ballet. The tall, small-head, long legged look is actually uniquely American in its origins. So not sure about your comment about Suzanne being the closest you've seen in an American ballerina to a European...before her, ballerinas (especially europeans) were expected to be much shorter.

[wickedsickdancer]

i find it very interesting how modern companies like ABT are featuring extremely tall female dancers now. for example one their best performers is 6' 1". that's almost 7 feet when she's on pointe! it gives tall dancers (like me) hope.

[jjlaroo]

She is amazing! i definitely encourage you to read her autobiography. i just read it in school and it is really great.

[shelaghmckenna]

Her unique abilities enabled her to dance his difficult choreography without compromise.

[shelaghmckenna]

What an extraordinary performance! Not many dancers could make this challenging choreography work -most would just look uncomfortable. They win our hearts in a pas de deux that is abstract and often static. And such a winsome Juliet!

[manfredfinch]

she's wonderful, as others have said her extensions are unbelievable. She is also very beautiful-- she has the face of a Botticelli Madonna. Also, gotta say it, but those who blame Balanchine or Farrell for encouraging a "concentration camp aesthetic," should look at this film. Is she anorexic--hell no! Just incredibly long-limbed.

[kdub10009]

You're quite right about Suzanne being anything from anorexic. In fact, she was one of the few ballerinas in Balanchine's company who was allowed to let her weight fluctuate. She was at many moments in her career considerably fuller figured than she appears here. Unfortunately Balanchine was not as easygoing with most other dancers when it came to their weight.

[madelyncat]

i still remember the first time i saw a maurice bejart film and jorge donn dance. i literally fell out of my chair. the contemporary choreography placed on a beautiful man (instead of a ballerina) was a revelation.

[aharper12]

She was truly an amazing dancer. Her line is extraordinary. It is so great to see a long limbed person have such control...

[wickedsickdancer]

does anyone know how tall Suzanne Farrell is?

[kdub10009]

Suzanne is about 5'7

[wickedsickdancer]

thank you!

[queenoftheuniverse]

thank you for posting this! i had seen farrell at NYCB  in the 80s, but never before any Bejart footage. she looks so young and strong. that strength is what makes her extension so thrilling, foufie. it comes not from rubbery hyperextended but from and open hip & incredible lift through the center. just breathtaking.

[ABTBluebird]

thank you so much for posting this. I love Suzanne Farrell.

[ballet23]

and she has the cutest dog named Charlie!

[ballet23]

I went to Suzanne Farrell's camp where only 10 dancers get picked out of the whole world. It was really fun her classes are great1 the camp was called ceder islands. It was obviously on an island and we had to bath in the lake and brush are teeth in the lake. Ans lived in thesestiny cabins, it was so much fun!

[fouffie]

How long ago was that? Have you danced ever since?

[ballet23]

I went last summer and the summer before that. And i have danced since then. I went to ABT Alabama this year. and i take classes year round

[ayla1209]

I love how she moves.. I always thought she had such a beautiful lyrical quality to her dancing. I wish I could have seen her when she was still performing.

[9Shadowfax9]

beautiful!!!!!!!!

but i think it would be funny if the REAL R&J did that... O_o

[fouffie]

Wonderful posting, I'd never seen any footage of Suzanne Farrell. Now I understand why she was considered one of the best ballerinas (with the best extension) of her time. She shines through Bejart's lame, oh so lame! choreography. (Jorge Dunn does not, in my opinion.) Do you know if there are any extent video sequences of her dancing Balanchine?

Thanks so much for having made this available!

[vi01et]

There are many clips of her dancing Balanchine. You generally can't find them on-line though.

[kdub10009]

Anyone interested in seeing more of Suzanne should check out Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse, the documentary about her. You can order in online - just google it. Also she's in the Peter Martins documentary from way back in the 70's that i remember renting at a local blockbuster back in the 90's, so it must be around somewhere...it's always a bit tough finding Balanchine due to legal constraints.

[grifffinity]

The Peter Martins: A Dancer VHS is available in many public libraries around the country. I've even seen a few copies come up on Ebay from time to time. That VHS contains two pas with Suzanne, AGON and Chaconne (a different & IMO a better danced version from the Dance in America footage) and there is some rehearsal footage of the pairs in Robbins Afternoon of a Faun.

[fouffie]

Thanks for the references! Additional context: Once Martins was appointed director of NYCB, he was not very generous with Farrell. In The New Yorker magazine several years ago , Arlene Croce (I think it was) wrote a long article about Farrell's career and her tribulations with the company, when she tried to teach there. She was considered the living expert on Ballanchine's ballets, but I think I remember reading that Martins did not want her to figure too prominently in his NYCB.

[kdub10009]

This past Sunday's New York Times Arts Section included an article on how Suzanne Farrell and other 'muses' of her ilk are rarely put in positions of power within the dance world. It's a sobering article.

[grifffinity]

What a different company NYCB would be is Suzanne ran the show - sigh ~

[fishyfish4444]

Yes, Griffinity. Perhaps, individuals are chosen for their fund-raising capacities. It could be that some individuals who fund the arts, not this one, would prefer to sit next to certain male individuals at Galas, instead of the lovely Ms. Farrell. I do not know. It is a shame what NYCB, as a business, did to Ms. Farrell.

[butifarra61]

good point...but the balarinas need to be used differently. The usual roles need to be thrown out. I think wheeldon, wants to do that? Use them more as instruments of movement rather than to show them as instruments of beuty and the femenine? Also to show both sex as equal on stage?

[fouffie]

Hi, thanks for the tip about "The Elusive Muse". I was able to find it in our library system... it's fantastically interesting, primarily to see how simple a person she is, so direct, so uncomplicated in her spirit/soul, almost "pure". And all that dance footage: what a find!

[kdub10009]

suzanne is in fantastic shape here.

[kdub10009]

thank you so much...

[davidquimate]

Thank you very much for that rare moment with Suzanne farrell. But you should add some information about the date and place it was performed so that we can get an idea of it. Thank you so much.

[grifffinity]

I believe this was recorded in 1972 in Italy and broadcast in that country. The DVD is only available through an Italian distributor and is not available in a US compatible format - I've tried to get a copy!

I would love for the original poster to upload more of this video!

[davidquimate]

thank you so much for answering.

[Elmirs]

I've just received this DVD from Italy. I'm surprized it's in NTSC format.

[grifffinity]

Really? Did you order it from HardyClassics?

[Elmirs]

I ordered it from mvmusica (La musica e' vita).

[nurturing]

Thank you for posting this beautiful Suzanne Farrell/Jorge Donn video!