Programme overview
Description
Ballet for Life was a unique collaboration between three huge cultural brands: Queen, Versace and the visionary choreographer Maurice Bejart. At its heart is the loss of two legendry performers, Freddie Mercury and dancer Jorge Donn, both of whom died of AIDS in the early 1990's. Bejart used these two high profile deaths to mourn the loss of a generation of artists who were quietly dying of this socially stigmatized disease.
Ballet for Life tells the story of the creation and subsequent success of the ballet featuring the great and the good of both rock and ballet, including: Brian May and Roger Taylor, and Adam Lambert, Wayne Sleep and Arlene Philips and of course incredible archive footage of Freddie Mercury, Maurice Bejart, Queen and Gianni Versace.
This film marks the ultimate fusion of Queen's sweeping emotional melodies and the timeless ethereal grace and movement of ballet. It is the first and only time a full length ballet has been paired to rock music albeit peppered with some equally well known pieces from Mozart.Photo (c) F. Paolini