A CAREER OF 47 CONSECUTIVE YEARS ...
Michel Gascard reached retirement age in 2021.
A career of 47 consecutive years, almost entirely dedicated to the Maurice Béjart's work. Today, as a freelance artist, he occasionally teaches masterclasses and workshops for professionals or high level dancers.
His youthful spirit and great physical fitness allow him to pass on his experience as a student, a dancer, a ballet master and a director.
As an independent artist, he teaches classical dance master-classes and workshops all over the world.
For more than 20 years, as a soloist, he served Maurice Béjart and his work, interpreting more than fifty different roles.
For 29 years, Michel Gascard trained more than 550 young dancers, the vast majority of whom still shine in the artistic world today as dancers, choreographers and company directors.
Dedicated to the idea that different cultural backgrounds provide a richer environment for both students and teachers, he organized international auditions that help bring over 30 unique nationalities to the Béjart's school.
As a result, three decades before bringing diversity to classical ballet became a front stage subject, Michel Gascard already mentored dancers from all over the world into those roles.
PASSION, CONVICTION AND LOYALTY
Since his professional debut at the age of 16, this gifted youngster already knew that dancing requires a complete dedication to the art. He learned to discover its infinite depth and the amount of work required for the acquisition of technique. While developing his own pedagogy he thrives to remain open minded and tirelessly keeps learning. “My Master Maurice Béjart taught me everything: to live, to love, to be tolerant, curious and respectful of others. I then became aware of the lifestyle, the morals and the intellectual qualities that this requires. His charisma and his influence made me want to constantly surpass myself. He gave me the desire to read, to watch, to listen, to walk, to travel. With him, I learned to live in a state of permanent excitement, discovery and joy. Because dance, in its complexity and its difficulty, must remain a luminous asceticism. My mission has always been to transmit the unique experience of my dancing career with passion, conviction and loyalty ».
He offers with passion, conviction and loyalty the transmission of his unique experience in the dance world.
If the dancing man is renowned for his professional integrity and his Béjartien loyalty, far from any search for power or celebrity, many are surprised to discover that little Michel wanted more than anything, from a very young age, to become an oceanographer. .... to work with Commander Cousteau!
He accompanies his mother Colette Milner to all the dance classes she teaches at the La Rochelle Conservatory in France but remains seated under the piano dreaming of the ocean and observing danse carefully until he knows all the exercises by heart.
It was at age 11 that he finally got up and asked to learn the exam variation to follow Philippe Giraudeau, his lifelong friend, also his mother's student.
FIRST WINNER OF THE "Prix de Lausanne" In 1973
The following will arrive like a traced road: Winner of the 1973 first Prix de Lausanne Winner of the 1973 first Prix de Lausanne, he decides to join the three years long program given at Maurice Béjart’s school in Belgium.
After only one year in school, he is hired straight into the company "Ballet du XXième siècle". We are in 1974 and he is only 17 years old.
In 1989, he danced for the first time in front of Commander Cousteau a Maurice Béjart's ballet "1789 et nous" at the Grand Palais in Paris for the bicentenary of the French Revolution.
As an experienced diver who has explored all the oceans, he never stopped developing his body and mind through sport (swimming, skiing, high mountain hiking, etc.)
The physical resistance and the fulfillment that he has thus developed inspire Maurice Béjart who creates for him long solos and roles that hold the stage throughout the show.
Like his maternal grandmother, concert pianist and student of Igor Stravinsky, Ravel & Berlioz at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, he is gifted with a great musical sense; Maurice Béjart readily calls him his "most musical firebird".
In a radio interview on November 7, 1983, Maurice Béjart said: "Colette Milner is a great teacher who gave us great students; the most important of which is our soloist Michel Gascard, a fascinating dancer, ... Colette Milner is right to be proud of her son, he is an extraordinary dancer, someone who combines many things rarely found in a single dancer: technique, freedom, musicality, sensitivity, creativity. He's a very, very unique individual."
Maurice Béjart also uses Michel's classical tenor voice work to make him sing in "The triumphs of Pertrarque", "The imaginary Molière", "The ring", "Acqua alta", .... Nino Rota composed a song for him in "Le Molière imaginaire", he worked with Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Teodorakis, Luciano Berio.He was surrounded, from an early age, with the great artists of his time:
- Pas-de-deux with Jorge Donn at just 18 in December 1974,
- Directed by Robert Hirsch of the Comédie Française,
- The great fashion designer Gianni Versace sews for him the red pants for the role of Dionysus, ... and creates the costumes for one of his personal choreographic creations for a show in Milan.
- He takes his daily barre between Paolo Bortoluzzi, Jorge Donn, Rudolf Nureyev, Michael Barishnikov, Vladimir Vasiliev and Fernando Bujones.
- He takes simultaneously the classes at the school, those of "Ballet du XXième siècle" and from great teachers in Paris and New York.
In 2021, the organization of the Prix de Lausanne makes him the guest of honor as its first winner.
His interview will bring together more than 8 million listeners on social networks - video LINK.
IN HIS 20 YEARS AT THE « Ballet du XXième siècle » HE TRAVELLED THE WORLD AND DANCED ON MYTHICAL STAGES :
FRANCE : Opéra de Paris, Théâtre du Chatelet, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Jardin des Tuileries, Comédie Française, Parvis du Trocadero for the film by Claude Lelouche, Palais des Sports, many other French theaters and festivals
ITALY : in particular La Scala in Milan, Fenice and Piazza San Marco in Venice, San Carlo-Napoli, Verona Arena
GREECE : Theater of Epidaurus, of Herodes Aticus,
GREAT BRITAIN : Covent Garden-London,
SOVIETIC UNION / RUSSIA : Bolshoi Theatres, Kremlin-Moscow, Marinsky Theater of Leningrad,
SOUTH AMERICA : Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela
USA & CANADA : Many cities in the United States and Canada; Including New York: City Center, Minskov Theater and Uris Theater
IRAN : Tomb of Darius, he dances in front of the Shah in Iran for the creation of Heliogabalus.
ISRAEL : Jerusalem, Tel Aviv,
JAPAN : Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Yokohama, …
OTHER COUNTRIES : Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Monaco, Turkey, Hong Kong, Egypt,…
« STARS GALA»
In Tokyo In the 1980s, he participated for several years in a row at the « Star’s gala » in Tokyo, which brought together the biggest names in the dance world of the 20th Century: Sylvie Guillem, Monique Loudières, Noëlla Pontois, Eva Evdokimova, Isabelle Guérin, Dominique Khalfouni, Patrick Dupont, Cyril Atanassoff, Fernando Bujones, Marcia Haydée, Richard Cragun, Vladimir Derevianko, Manuel Legris, Peter Schaufuss... .
His name appears in many world rankings in the top 100 best ballet dancers of the 20th century.
MAURICE BEJART CREATES MANY ROLES FOR HIM ...
1789 et nous
Acqua alta
Ce que l'amour me dit
Ce que la mort me dit
Dionysos
Gaieté parisienne
Heliogabale
La flûte enchantée (Monostatos)
La mort subite
La muette
La nuit transfigurée
La tour
Le concours
Le Molière imaginaire
Les Illuminations
Les sept danses grecques
L’histoire du soldat
Light
M pour B
Malraux ou la métamorphose des dieux
Messe pour le temps futur
Mozart Tango
Notre Faust
Pyramide
El Nour
Ring um den Ring
Souvenirs de Leningrad
Talassa Mare Nostrum
Wien Wien, nur du allein
HE TAKES UP THE ROLES OF BEJARTIEN REPERTOIRE :
Bhakti
Farah
Golestan ou le jardin des roses
La flûte enchantée (Papageno, Tamino)
Le marteau sans maître
L'oiseau de feu
Petrouchka
Pli selon pli
V comme
"Le Jeune Homme" du Sacre du Printemps
AS A CHOREOGRAPHER :
As a choreographer, he produced "Trois pour trois" in 1983 at the Cirque Royal in Brussels and in 1984 "Debussy" in Milan. The famous Gianni Versace creates his choreographie's costumes.
He also worked as a "repetiteur" for the Béjart Ballet Lausanne until 1993.
IN 1992, MAURICE BÉJART CREATED THE RUDRA BEJART SCHOOL WITH MICHEL GASCARD.
Maurice Béjart taught him the basics of running a school and left him in charge of "Rudra". This de facto autonomy convinced Michel Gascard that he made the right choice.
It was in 1993 that Michel Gascard put an end to his career as a dancer, while he was still a soloist in Maurice Béjart's company.
He leaves behind him the lights of international stages and the standing ovations to become the craftsman of the invisible: a pedagogue.
Shortly before passing away, Maurice Béjart asked Michel Gascard to become a member of his private foundation.
In 2007, in his will, Maurice Béjart appointed him "solely responsible" for the Rudra Béjart school after 35 years of close collaboration.
He was appointed Director in 2007 and remained so until his retirement in 2021.
Following the multi-disciplinary spirit of Maurice Béjart, the school's curriculum included daily classical ballet, boys' lessons, Pas-de-deux, Martha Graham technique and repertoire lessons, musical education (singing and percussion) and Japanese martial arts.
In addition, numerous master-classes allowed the opening and learning of different techniques: modern dances, traditional Indian and African dances, Spanish dance, theater, circus arts... .
During these 3 decades at the direction of the school, he organized international tours in Europe, China, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Thailand, India, ... and educational and artistic exchanges lasting several weeks in China and India.
He will return to the stage to perform three roles specially created for him:
- "Marius Petipa" in Maurice Béjart's "Tchekhov au bois dormant" in 2006
- "Auguste Rodin" in "Camille Claudel, the bride of oblivion" by Valérie Lacaze in 2012
- "Diaghilev" in "My French Valentino" by Valérie Lacaze in 2019.
Note that on these three occasions, he dances on stage surrounded by his students.
Michel Gascard taught classical ballet and Maurice Béjart's repertoire six days a week for 29 years, in the form of choreographic studies with his students.
At the resquest of Maurice Béjart who gives him all his artistic and pedagogical confidence.
HE RESTAGES CHOREOGRAPHIES FOR PROFESSIONAL COMPANIES :
These include: "The Rite of Spring", "Seven Greek Dances", "The Ring", "Petrouchka", "Don Giovani", "The Firebird", "Bolero", "Sonata for Three", "The Magic Flute" ...
For companies as prestigious as: The Paris Opera Ballet, the Stadt Oper in Stuttgart, the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, the Scala in Milan, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Royal Ballet of Sweden, the Tokyo Ballet, the National Ballet of China, the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the Opera Real de Madrid, ... .
THE TRADEMARK :
Between 2007 and 2024, Michel Gascard was the owner of the ‘Rudra Béjart’ brand name, in order to protect the educational responsibility transmitted by Maurice Béjart.
This brand, with its altruistic objective, has respected, protected and perpetuated Maurice Béjart's philosophy and pedagogical principles throughout this period.
