10, 11 April 2006. In Bolero, The Firebird, Brel & Barbara, choreography by Maurice Bjart. The great Belgian choreographer seems finally to have found stability with this small company, which is completely dedicated to performing the vast Bjart repertoire. Born in Marseilles, France, in 1927, Bjart worked as a classical dancer before developing an interest in choreography. He founded his own ballet company, the Ballet de lEtoile, in Paris in 1954. He gradually built up a repertoire, but faced an initially sceptical public. The company changed its name to the Ballet-Thtre de Paris in 1957, and three years later it moved to Brussels where it changed its name to the Ballet du XX sicle. It travelled the world performing critically and publicly acclaimed pieces such as Ravels Bolero and Stravinskys The Firebird. Bjart moved to Lausanne in 1987 and renamed the ballet company the Bjart Ballet Lausanne. In Bjarts words: "My ballets are first encounters with a piece of music, with life, death, love with people whose past and work are embodied in me, just like the dancer I no longer am. Imagination, violence, humour, love everything is there."