Perhaps the most well-known piece, danced to Mozart’s “Musique Maconnique” transitioning into Queen’s “Radio Gaga” and featuring Oscar Eduardo Chacon, Hideo Kishimoto and “all the boys,” spotlights a series of bare-chested male dancers willingly entering a boxed-in platform. The thematic interpretations are endless, both in acknowledgement of and in defiance to society’s confining sexual norms, especially at a time in history when homosexuality was particularly targeted. It’s both insightful and campy, and with its obvious celebration of the male form, quintessentially Béjart. 

Even when his staging seems off-point to modern audiences, Béjart forces us to rethink our unconscious bias. A triumphant last sequence, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” segues immediately into a tribute to Jorge Donn (“I Want to Break Free”), where archived footage of Donn dancing is projected center stage as the company watches from the sides. It’s too long, especially for today’s shortened attention-spans, yet on reflection, it seems wholly deliberate. Why do open displays of love invariably invite cynicism and derision? What shame is there, in celebrating a love, in keeping that love alive, on-stage and in hearts? What could easily be dismissed becomes something profound. Béjart himself, in portraiture, shares the stage with his dancers after the last stirring sequence in black and white, “The Show Must Go On” ends, the dancers melting back under their gauzy white fabrics, mimicking the show’s opening to complete the cycle of life and dance. The joyful, numerous curtain calls also spoke of this kind of love, between art and its audience. After his 30 years with the company as a dancer, it was the last time for Favreau to dance the role of Freddie in Tokyo as he takes on full duties as artistic director. The audience didn’t want him to go. 

Béjart’s essence lies in his fierce intellect, a creator who forces audiences to both think and feel, to question and reconsider. Queen fans will thrill to the many Easter eggs to Mercury in costuming and posturing, but don’t expect any straightforward biography. This December, BBL will stage “Ballet for Life” at the Beaulieu Theater in Lausanne for the first time in ten years. European fans shouldn’t miss the opportunity to see for themselves Béjart’s astute musings on the vast spectrum of sexuality, on the different forms and expressions love can take, over a lifetime.