Dance at the Brussels World Fair 1958
A selection of critical writings of Marcel Lobet and Georges Sion

Text by Staf Vos

© Myriam Van Imschoot

On the anthology Texts and text fragments in the anthology Keywords and search facilities Background information Print the text in Pdf

On the anthology

Expo 1958 was the first World’s Fair since the Second World War. So far, the prominent place dancing occupied within the artistic part of the Expo has gone unnoticed in the extensive literature on the subject. Yet the concentration of performances from around the world provoked an unprecedented interest within local periodicals for theatrical and folkloristic dance and facilitated the training of more or less specialised critics. Their criticism put dance and bodily expression to the fore as modern symbols of a better world to be constructed through culture and technology, yet with respect for humanist values. This humanist modernism mostly presented academic ballet, folkloristic or exotic dance, and some modern ballet with Jerome Robbins and Maurice Béjart as most progressive representatives. Criticised by the next decade’s avant-garde as too conservative, its critical discourse, if not aesthetic language, remained however influential in larger audiences’ reception of dance and performance.

For this anthology, research has been focused on French-language criticism in the politically neutral, Brussels-based daily newspaper Le Soir and Les Beaux-Arts, the weekly magazine of the Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts which also served as the official Expo Festival weekly. In the late 1950s, journalists involved with dance and dance criticism in Brussels were predominantly French-speaking and France-oriented. From the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, an independent ‘Flemish’, Dutch-speaking cultural scene developed, albeit much more slowly in Brussels than e.g. in Antwerp. This movement, however, hardly affected the Brussels dance scene until the 1960s. Today, Belgium is a federal country with a self-governing Flemish, French – both actively present in Brussels – and German community.

In their writings on dance at the Expo, key critics Marcel Lobet and Georges Sion proved to be specialists with a particular view on the demands of dance history, but also with a revealing ambiguity towards modernity, body language and international culture. This ambiguity was not accidental or eccentric, but related to the broader ideological context of France-oriented dance aesthetics on the one hand, and Expo 58 on the other hand.

Top

Texts and text fragments in the anthology

Click on the arrow behind the reference to read the entire text.

• 'Le ballet en Allemagne. Un entretien avec Andrée Marlière', January 6 1958, 2. --›(*)
• '"L'Apprenti fakir" et la mise en scène du ballet moderne', January 9 1958, 2. --›(*)
• 'Le "Rendez-vous manqué" de Françoise Sagan', February 6 1958, 7. --›(*)
• 'Les Ballets Bolchoï', April 18 1958, 24. --›
• 'Danses balinaises', May 23 1958, 5. --›(*)
• 'Gala du ballet belge', May 25 1958, 2. --›
• 'La chorégraphie moderne absente de l'exposition', May 29 1958, 2. --›
• 'Margot Fonteyn triomphe dans la "Belle au bois dormant"', May 30 1958, 5. --›
• 'Grâce et disgrâce du ballet anglais', June 12 1958. --›
• 'L'Opéra de Pékin', June 15 1958, 5. --›
• 'Roméo et Juliette. Le Bolchoï à la Monnaie', July 6 1958, 7. --›
• 'Les Ballets U.S.A. de Jerôme Robbins', July 18 1958, 7. --›
• 'Le ballet américain', August 14 1958, 2. --›
• 'L'Avenir du ballet', September 12 1958, 2. --›
• 'Le ballet et la télévision', September 24 1958, 5. --›
• 'Ballets de musique concrète', October 7 1958, 7. --›
• 'De la scène aux livres', October 31 1958, 2. --›
• 'A l'Opéra royal flamand d'Anvers. Soirée de ballets', November 6 1958, 2. --›(*)
• 'L'"Orphée" de Béjart', December 11 1958, 2. --›(*)

• 'Au rendez-vous du Heysel: un nouvel humanisme', April 10 1958. --›
  

• A. Scohy, 'La danse, miroir de l'Afrique', February 28 1958, 7. --›(*)
• G. Sion, 'De Pékin à Buenos Ayres', June 27 1958, 3. --›
• G. Sion, 'Jerome Robbins et les ballets USA. Le Nederlands Ballet', August 1 1958, 4 and 6. --›
• G. Sion, 'L’ensemble Moïsséev. L’American Ballet’, August 22 1958, 3. --›
• A. de la Mar, 'Un novateur de la danse, Maurice Béjart', October 3 1958, 5. --›
• F. Reiss, 'Présence de Janine Charrat', October 17 1958, 12. --›(*)
• M. Verken, 'Aux Galas de la Pléiade: Le Ballet-Théâtre de Paris', December 5 1958, 1 and 7. --›(*)

• M. Lobet, 'La renaissance du ballet dans le monde', La Revue Générale Belge, 91 (1955), nr. 1, 407-426. --›(*)
• M. Lobet, 'An investigation into the Revival of Ballet Themes / Enquête sur le renouvellement des thèmes de ballet', Le Théâtre dans le Monde. Revue trimestrielle publiée par l’Institut International du Théâtre avec le concours de l’Unesco, 6 (1957), nr. 3, 168-210. --›(*)
• G. Sion, 'L'Exposition en soixante spectacles', La Revue Générale Belge, 94 (1958), nr. 10, 14-31. --›
• M. Lobet, Le ballet français d'aujourd'hui. De Serge Lifar à Béjart (Brussels: Ad. Goemaere; Paris: Librairie Théâtrale, 1958), 9-37 and 137-151. --›(*)

The anthology is a selection from a more extended corpus of articles on dance and theatre published in Le Soir and Les Beaux-Arts in 1958. Researchers can gain access to the entire archive at Sarma by sending a motivated request to contact.sarma@gmail.com.

(*) These texts were not specifically written at the occasion of the World Festival at Expo 58, but are thematically or chronologically related to the Exposition.

We hope not to have violated any copyrights. Please contact us if we have.

Top

Keywords and search facilities

These keywords can be used on the search page to browse through the database.

Click here to access all the texts of the anthology'Dance at the Brussels World Fair 1958' in the database.

Top

Background information

• ‘La renaissance du ballet dans le monde’, La Revue Générale Belge, 1955, nr. 1, 407-425. [fragment included in the anthology]
• Panorama du ballet d'aujourd'hui (Paris-Brussels: Georges-Marie Dutilleul, 1956), 147p.
• ‘An Investigation into the Revival of Ballet Themes / Enquête sur le renouvellement des thèmes de ballet’, Le Théâtre dans le Monde, 6 (1957), nr. 3, 168-210. [fragment included in the anthology]
• Le ballet français d'aujourd'hui. De Lifar à Béjart (Brussels: Ad. Goemaere; Paris: Librairie Théâtrale, 1958), 226p. [fragment included in the anthology]
• M. Lobet, ‘Serge Lifar et le ballet moderne’, Revue Générale Belge, 94 (1958), 57-68.
• La danse (Encyclopédie par l'image) (Parijs, Hachette, 1958), 62p.
• Dix années de ballets à la télévision belge: ballets et spectacles chorégraphiques présentés de 1953 à 1963 (Les cahiers RTB, série Arts et Lettres 1) (Brussels: Radiodiffusion Télévision Belge, s.d.), 78p.
• Paolo Bertoluzzi (Brussel : Paul Legrain 1979) 92p.
• Lobet was working on the never accomplished Histoire du ballet de la Monnaie depuis 1700 jusqu’à nos jours.

• M. Lobet, L'humanisme du cœur (Discussion with Berthe Bolsée) (1971).
• J. Lacroix, Marcel Lobet, bibliographie de ses œuvres et ouvrages à consulter (Parijs 1991).
• Marcel Lobet and Marc Lobet, Un supplément d'âme: essai d'autoportrait intemporel (1998).
• J. Gélis en J. Lacroix ed., Mélanges Marcel Lobet (Parijs: A Rebours-Dison: Ad. Hardy; 1992) with a.o. A. Burnet, ‘La critique de ballet ou la leçon du maître’ (53-55) and G. Sion, ‘Le jeu des chaises musicales’ (189-191).

• R. Barbier, Van operaballet naar Ballet van Vlaanderen (Antwerpen z.d.).
• J. Brabants, Les trois coups belge: de geschiedenis van de theaterdans in België: afkloppen... en doek open! (Antwerpen 1994).
• A. Burnet, ‘La critique de ballet ou la leçon du maître’, in: J. Gélis en J. Lacroix ed., Mélanges Marcel Lobet (Parijs: A Rebours-Dison: Ad. Hardy; 1992) 53-55.
• P. Davay, M. Lobet e.a., De kunsten ( Algemene wereldtentoonstelling te Brussel 1958. Gedenkboek, 5) (Brussel 1960).
• J. Franck, ‘Visages d’aujourdhui. Jean-Jacques Etchevery’, Revue Générale Belge, 94 (1958), nr.5, 136-141.
• Internationale dagen van de experimentele muziek (Algemene Wereldtentoonstelling. Brochure, 5-10 oktober 1958) (Brussel 1958).
• J. Kint, Expo 58 als belichaming van het humanistisch modernisme (Rotterdam 2001).
• G. Pluvinage (ed.), Expo 58. Tussen droom en werkelijkheid (Tielt 2008); and more specific T. Verschaffel, '"Er waait een harde wind, maar de hemel blijft blauw..." De boodschap van Expo 58', in: op. cit., 73-94.
• R. Stengele, Bejart en de dans: van de "Symphonie pour un homme seul" tot de IXe symfonie (foto’s R. Kaeyaert) (Brussel 1966).
• B. Vervliet, Een boon voor de dans op Vlaamse podia in de fifties. Studie van Piet Deses’ danskritieken in Het Tooneel en Het Antwerpsch Tooneel (onuitg. lic.verh. Taal- en Letterkunde: Germaanse talen, UAntwerpen) (Antwerpen 2007).
• Interview with Albert Burnet by Lieve Dierckx and Staf Vos, Ukkel, November 29th 2005 (Sarma).

Researchers can gain access to the entire archive at Sarma by sending a motivated request to contact.sarma@gmail.com

Top