Review for Queen and Bejart: Ballet for Life

Queen and Bejart: Ballet for Life was a collaboration piece between notorious ballet choreographer Maurice Bejart and the music of Queen. This seems like a match made in heaven. The late great Freddy Mercury who so sadly died in 1991 due to complications from AIDS is one of the best performers in Rock history. His performances are legendary and so many frontmen have tried (and failed) to copy it.

This ballet is certainly an experience more akin to contemporary dance than a traditional ballet, but it is clear that only expert ballet dancers could accomplish much of what was presented in the spectacular show. Spectacle really is the right word to use for the whole piece, with costumes designed by Gianni Versace even if you are not a fan of ballet, the combination with Queen's amazing music make it a wonderful experience.

Over the ninety minutes, the show plays like a Greatest Hits of Queen and though there are many of my favourites missing such as We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions and Who Wants To Live Forever, but this would be a setlist for any great concert. It includes dances to the likes of A Kind of Magic, Radio Ga Ga, Brighton Rock and of course Bohemian Rhapsody.

I would love to say there was a plot to the show and I'm sure there was, but I could not decipher it much like most ballet. However, I don't think it matters and you should just allow yourself to be enveloped in the music and dance and let the show carry you on.

As well as the original show filmed from 1997 on this set, they include the original making of from 1997 and also a newly created one for the Twentieth Anniversary in 2017. Both are great if you are a fan of ballet or Queen. The 1997 focuses more on the creation of the show itself, but the up to date includes far much more archive footage of the band which is fantastic.

The only thing I do wish is that they had created a new show for the Anniversary as it would have been great to have seen how the material would have been presented with all the advancements of technology. That being said, this is still a great look at how you can take two mediums (Ballet and Rock) and fuse them together to make an amazing cocktail for the senses. Though I would rather be watching a Queen concert to see how great Freddy Mercury always was, this is clearly an amazing experiment that proved that ballet is for life.