Death Notice (1)

The famous French choregrapher Maurice Béjart, most know for his revolutionary ballets, died today at the age of 80. I knew him especially through the Snuls, that bunch of comedians from Brussels who were quite prominent in Wallonia at the beginning of the nineties, relying on surrealistic humour. They often made fun of his ballets and their pseudo-news bulletins always mentioned some kind of a "nouveau ballet Béjart". But unfortunately, I didn't find anything about that on YouTube, but I found an fragment of a show:



The idea was to go in a café and ask somebody to say something, and the more silly they were, the more chance they had to be on the show. That's what happened with this bloke (a real snul, a Brussels word meaning something like "idiot") who thought he could sing "Singin' in the Rain".

Let's come back to Béjart. Several Belgian newspapers are known for displaying headings that include a rather audacious pun. Here's what my mother sent me today:

"Maurice Béjart est parti faire danser les étoiles" (La Libre Belgique)
"Le dernier pas de danse de Béjart" (Le Soir)

The latest news bulletins say that his ashes will be spread in the sea in Ostend. Some also claim that he wanted to become a Belgian citizen short before he died, but this won't be possible, I guess.

As long as we're in a French-speaking mood, let me show you what my old friend Cyril tells me about the French language in a recent e-mail:

On dit souvent que jouer sur les mots est facile, mais est-il si facile de jouer avec les mots ? Un mot peut avoir plusieurs significations évidentes et souvent connues de tous. Une association de mots peut avoir beaucoup plus d'impact, car elle fait réfléchir. Ne dit-on pas que la réflexion est une des magies que la nature a confié à l'homme ? Si c'est le cas, les mots n'en sont-ils pas les incantations et la langue la baguette ?

I think he should have become a poet!