All language subtitles for Queen + Bejart - Ballet For Life 2018_ENG

We were fairly expert at playing
to very large stadium audiences.

Maurice is doing his thing
in stadiums

in another part of the artistic
landscape.

It's a very similar concept.

It's like, let the audience be
part of this and it will make

the whole thing grow into
something new and different.

I wouldn't have dared to marry
our music with a ballet,

but what they did made me see
some of our music

in a different light.

What Béjart was doing
was colossal.

It was like a Busby Berkeley
revue, but in ballet.

Their music is just incredible.

The costumes of Gianni Versace,

and everything together
it was just a dream to do.

We had this wonderful
interaction with ballet

and with one of
its greatest creators

at a time when Queen was sort of
already over, in a sense.

It was a tribute
to Freddie Mercury

and to the people who died
too young.

'Ballet For Life'
is very important

because it spreads
to the public

the agony that people
went through before they died.

It was life triumphing
over death, in a way.

I think with Freddie's death,

we just thought it was all over,
you know?

We hadn't planned on ever
playing again.

We really regarded it as over.
'It' being Queen.

We thought, "We've done this,
we've built it and there it is."

We always said if one of us
could no longer do it,

that was it.

We ran away to the four corners
of the Earth.

But then we came back to make
the 'Made In Heaven' album.

This kind of labour of love,

which was to make the best
of what was left.

Freddie left a lot of scraps,
quite deliberately.

We all worked so that
we would have things

from Freddie to work on
when he was gone.

We got used to hearing
Freddie's voice,

without him actually
being there.

And it was strangely cathartic

and I think it was a very
emotional record.

We all went to inaugurate
Freddie's statue in Montreux.

And it wasn't a nice feeling
at all.

It was a feeling of resentment
and upset

and, I suppose, anger

It was like, this is all
that's left of my friend

and we're supposed
to be happy about it?

This sort of piece of metal?

This statue is a gift from us,

the family and friends
of Freddie,

to the people of Montreux,

who have always been so kind
to Queen

and gave Freddie
a kind of sanctuary

in the last few years
of his life.

The place you feel closest
to Freddie,

is actually in Montreux.

The last song that he wrote,
was written there.

He loved being in that apartment

and just 20 minutes
down the lake,

a couple of years later, Maurice
Béjart created this ballet.

It's always very difficult
to know

when you start
and why you start.

But sometimes it's a shock.

Of course the main meaning of
the ballet, for me, it's love.

I must be in love
with the music.

I must be in love
with the idea.

I must be in love
with the dancers.

It's really a story of love.

I was a great fan
of Freddie Mercury.

And I knew the music
of Queen.

I was really in love with
that music.

And then I bought
the last record

and I saw a photo on the record.

And I've got a house on top of
Montreux in Switzerland

with exactly the same view.

He died just one year before
my main dancer, Jorge Donn.

And then lots of things
came together.

I met Maurice Béjart

at the unveiling of the statue
to Freddie.

He was an entrancing man

and these steely blue eyes
that lit up,

and he would carry you along
with his enthusiasm.

We had one very illuminating
conversation,

basically about people who died
too young.

Maurice had a very
brilliant dancer,

called Jorge Donn.

Soon after Freddie died,

Jorge also died
of the same thing.

There was a definite
parallel there,

because we'd lost Freddie

and Maurice had lost Jorge,
the love of his life,

and this wonderfully
talented man and so had we.

So I think they were both
creative processes

that happened after those
twin losses.

So it's like destiny took me
by the hand.

I had to put Freddie
and Jorge Donn, together.

And in that case,
it was love and death.

We were delighted that somebody
wanted to do something

so creative with the music.

So, why not?

How could we possibly say no
to a giant

of another discipline in art?

Coming to us and asking us
if he can use our music.

What a wonderful thing
to happen.

I mean, yeah.

Freddie was never just a singer.

He just burned when he sang.

And every movement
that he made,

was as if he was a dancer.

I made 'I Was Born To Love You',
the video, with Freddie.

I would say what I wanted

and he would give it more
than I could have ever imagined.

He's so creative.
He's physically creative.

He strutted around the stage
like Rudolph Nureyev.

Absolutely pulled up.

Presenting to the audience.

He's this magnificent specimen.

You look at him in 1986
on the stage there,

he's a picture of health,
vitality, and strength.

I just think that there are
sort of balletic moments

in our sort of repertoire.

I would like to go and take
ballet lessons.

It's nice if I could just study

some of the routines
or exercise,

so that I would know how to
put them across on stage.

At the moment,
what I do is mock ballet.

Freddie Mercury
came to the ballet all the time

and to the opera.

And when we'd go home with him
afterwards,

he'd take us to dinner,
we had no money.

He was very generous,
by the way.

And we'd go back to his and,
guess what would go on the TV?

A ballet or an opera.

He would try and get information
from us about,

"Well, if you do this step,
what's fifth position?"

And he would practise it.

And then he got one
of the Royal Ballet

to actually choreograph
his video of one of his numbers.

He saw classical ballet
as this big, extravagant world

that he wanted to enter
and develop through his world.

Freddie wanted to take ballet
to the masses.

He's what I love about
what I consider to be art.

He goes, "This is what I feel
from my heart.

This is why I do my art.

But I care about what people
think about it,

so I will listen to people

and I will feel what
they feed back to me

and I will walk this line
between being commercial,

which you can interpret as being
successful, if you like,

and being the artist
that I wanna be."

Now, Maurice exactly fits
that line, to me.

I think I was the first one
to play in a big arena.

We tried to have
a different audience.

Just to give new blood
to the ballet audience.

Béjart was one of
the greatest creators

of stage formations
we've ever seen.

I mean,
it was a huge company.

And he would use them
dramatically.

He would tell a story sometimes,
through the lines, the circles,

the different shapes
that he made.

He's someone who totally
understands and empathises

with traditional ballet,
but has his own thing.

Again, like Freddie.
Freddie's the same.

He was conscious
of what the rules were

and very conscious
that he liked breaking them.

As a dancer, I started my career
in London.

I was 20 and I was in
a very classic company.

English company, dancing
'Swan Lake', 'Sleeping Beauty'

and all the classic ballet.

And from there,
I escaped in other fields.

Béjart took the pure
classical form and he pushed it

so that when he used
contemporary music,

they took the music as a way

to redefine
a classical movement.

And he took it, I think, beyond
any other company, at the time.

He's a very free spirit.

There's nothing expected
in what he does.

Everything is quite a shock and
that's part of his genius.

When I first saw Maurice Béjart
at The Coliseum Theatre,

I was overwhelmed.

I saw a whole 'corps de ballet'
of men.

Normally the 'corps de ballet'
is made out of 32 women.

These were 32 men
in these cloaks,

running round the stage
and there were no women in it.

I thought,
"Wow, we've arrived!"

Béjart takes a classical form,

and bends it
in every different way.

I think so, with Queen.

I don't know what really
first attracted

Maurice Béjart to our music.

I suspect
it was that eclectic mix

of sort of semi-pseudo
classical pieces

and sort of mock-operatic pieces
and mixed in with rock music.

Queen's music cries out
for this big,

rock, opera, classical
dance piece.

He knew what his concept was
and he just went off and did it.

He didn't really interact
with us

as regards, "Which piece
am I gonna use?"

And we were happy with that,
because we knew he was a genius.

Oh, la-la la-la.

If you can.

Good.

I joined the company in 1995,

so I was there when Maurice
Béjart created this ballet.

For me and I think for all
the dancers of the company,

it was really new
and a big challenge.

Even the work in the studio
was really different.

I started with the piece,
'Heaven For Everyone'.

Because that's the last album,
the new album.

And of course, when I started
with the music,

it was really a joy.

I tried to work on each song
like a video clip.

Each song was an entity.

I didn't try to start
with a story.

With the dancers,
we were thinking

how the ballet was going to be.

"What will be the message?"

Because at first,
he didn't say anything.

I choreographed one song,
another song and another one.

Then the story went by itself.

The story of two people,

one singer, one young dancer
and death.

A lot of it's about
Freddie's music,

but Freddie's no longer there.

It's also about Jorge Donn,
who's also no longer there.

And there we all are making
music about life and death.

And Maurice is finding things
in our music

that we didn't know were there.

I think if you write a song,
it can't be too specific.

It's got to appeal
to a lot of people.

It has to have sort of
general themes

which might touch
a lot of people.

You can't be too specific,
I think.

These are sort of
eternal themes.

You start writing about
something very concrete

that you feel something about.

Gradually you become aware that
it's part of a bigger picture.

And so the song becomes
about a picture,

which hopefully everyone
can relate to.

When we started to understand
what it will look like,

I think we were all very moved.

Béjart always said it's like
an homage

to the people who died
too young.

At the beginning
of the ballet,

when the curtains open, we're
lying on the floor like this,

and we wake up one by one.

In the beginning when
we're all...

everyone is like...
because you don't expect it.

Because you just see
the white floor

and then there's life
over there.

You're kind of looking for the
eternal in that piece of music.

It's a place we'd never gone
in Queen when Freddie was alive

and I think we're trying
to hold onto him.

It's still great
to hear him there

and it's like he's all
around us still.

It was really like, "Let's just
listen to our hearts."

We started with
the tiniest things,

but we got inspired to weave it
into a big tapestry.

And of course that's
what Maurice is doing visually.

Each vision is made
by the song.

Not so much by the words.

The music is my food.

Béjart was not afraid to take
whatever he had seen

and use it to push ballet
over the edge.

Usually, I go on stage
as a classical dancer,

but Béjart said, "OK, listen,

I don't want to see you on stage
as a dancer.

Show me the rock star
you could be."

I know when he did
this solo for me,

Maurice said to me, "Be like
Nureyev, really classical.

And then after,
break the movements."

Nureyev for Maurice
was a big friend.

They worked together
for many years.

So that's why maybe he wanted
to include Nureyev too

to pay homage to him.

Rudolph Nureyev
was a household name.

It would be like a pop concert,

the end of a ballet
with him in it.

He was to ballet, what Freddie
was to rock 'n' roll.

I mean, he really was
that powerhouse.

Both of them were at their peaks

at the same sort of time
in the '70s, '80s.

Both of them dying from
AIDS-related illnesses

and within 18 months,
two years of each other.

So, he told me to be perfect
like Nureyev was.

I tried.

And then all the movement after,
it breaks.

So, it's a contrast between the
classical and Maurice Béjart.

And I love it!

In this ballet, I have
like 13 different costumes.

These costumes from Versace,
they are really inspired

from the original costumes
of Freddie Mercury,

so you never have these kind of
costumes in classical ballet.

We always had a rule of wearing
either black or white on stage.

And Gianni Versace
did the wonderful costumes

and he stuck to that
sort of rule.

They're very immaculate
and I think they look terrific.

Maurice really took on board

some of the aspects
of our live performance,

even including colouring,
colours and lighting.

It looks very alive.
It looks very modern.

And, actually, strangely enough,
about Versace,

I suppose he could really join
the triumvirate

of lives cut tragically short.

After working a moment
with Queen,

I don't know how we came up
with the idea of Mozart.

Mozart died very young,
he was only 35, even younger.

It works very well,
Queen and Mozart together.

I thought it was a great
compliment.

You know,
to be on the same bill.

A lot of people raised
their eyebrows at that time.

"Mozart and Queen?"

But it's the genius of Maurice
which made it work.

I'd never thought of the two
in the same breath.

No, it's a very daring piece,
really.

It's a daring piece.

I think in this period, we were
talking a lot about this,

about AIDS.

So people were worried

and they wanted to know
what it was exactly.

People died from this.

I have friends that died
from AIDS.

It was during this period that
we spoke really a lot about it.

At the time, when AIDS
started to spread,

there were more and more fears
amongst people

who even discovered
that they didn't have AIDS,

but they felt their life was
only about living with death.

They saw it all around them.

And I think even today,

they still feel there's
a finite moment

when death will descend.

So many people, when hearing
the term 'living with AIDS',

really just take it that it's
the person who has the disease

Who is living With AIDS.

But that is not true.

It is everybody,

including that person,
and everybody around them

who is actually living
with the disease.

I have to say that we weren't
really aware.

Or if we were aware,
we were in severe denial.

Because we always thought,
"It's Freddie. He can't die.

This can't really be...
No, of course he can't."

Somebody is gonna find a way
of dealing with this,

which they nearly did.

If he'd been in that situation,
probably two years later,

he would still be around now.

When Freddie accepted
his diagnosis in 1987

it was a death sentence.

All I could feel was that
I could make him comfortable.

But that there was nothing
that I could do

that was actually
going to save his life.

In 2006 I got the chance
to do this part.

I mean, I've been doing this
for ten years.

But I was so young and I think
I didn't really understand

what I needed to see
in this variation.

I was focused in getting it
right in Maurice's style,

because it requires precision.

But when I had
my own experience,

in love,
like every human being,

I think I started to realise
what I needed to express.

Maurice loves not just
when you're dancing

and showing that
you're suffering,

but that you're
actually feeling it.

Sometimes I feel
I'm an innocent person,

who maybe also
got ill with AIDS.

And maybe I am sensing Death,

that he's right here
and wants to take me away.

If you listen to the music
and the lyrics, you understand.

When I'm moving like,
"I will find you",

it's already like,
"I will find you."

I turn away and then, I'm like,
"Oh, no, please."

He's coming, you know?

He may look into my eyes,
and I'm hiding.

Because, maybe I don't want
him to hurt me again.

It's chilling.
It's really chilling, isn't it?

Even talking about it
sends shivers up your spine.

To find that in the music.
And yet, it's not despair.

It's looking for beauty,
even in those thoughts of death.

The first time I experienced
anyone with AIDS

was in 1979, and no one knew
what it was.

I was working on a film
called 'Can't Stop The Music'

with The Village People.

And Bronte Woodard,
our writer, got very sick.

Other friends in Los Angeles
became sick.

And nobody had a name for it.

They were going in hospital
and coming out again.

And in the hospital,
and coming out again.

Suddenly, it seemed
everywhere I went,

friends, dancers, were getting
very sick and passing away.

And you suddenly realised
you were enveloped in this world

that nobody knew
a great deal about.

Nobody seemed to have
any success

in finding any medication
to help people survive.

And I felt that I was travelling
from hospital to hospital

in New York, Germany, London,
Los Angeles visiting people.

And my heart was breaking.

AIDS seemed to hit gay people
at first.

It was the gay disease

that no straight person
thought they'd ever get.

Therefore, nothing was done
about it.

Of course, in people's minds,
and that's where it all starts,

the ballet world was rife.

We all suffered from the stigma,
that was attached to us

because we were gay,
of having AIDS.

I don't have it.

But the press wanted
to expose anybody

who was famous or a celebrity,

if they had an inkling
they might have contracted AIDS.

The press started to come
to my door,

and one shouted
through the letterbox,

"Come out,
we know you're dying."

People were dying of it,
people wouldn't go near them.

And you couldn't get into
a hospital if you had AIDS,

at the beginning.

Nobody would take you in with a
disease they knew nothing about,

because they thought it could
contaminate the ward.

A friend of mine, they thought
he was dying of AIDS,

so on his door, they'd write,
"No admittance. AIDS patient.

Wear rubber gloves.
Do not touch."

It was 'the gay curse'.

It was, you know,
it was God's curse on gay men.

I remember where we were,
of course everybody remembers,

when the news of the death of
somebody close to them happens.

But we all gathered around
together, John, Roger and myself

and just sat there
kind of stunned.

And then we put on the TV
and on the TV it said,

"Freddie Mercury today
died of AIDS."

It was a shock.

It's only then
that we believed it, I think.

There's both feelings
in all the ballet.

Because there's death,
but there's also life.

So we have to carry on.

Everything depends in the way
you take it, you know?

I was born to love you,
but you're not there anymore.

And then you can think also,

I was born to love you,
so it's nice.

I think about
an imaginary husband,

that he's gone, and I go through
all these different feelings.

When I think of him, I'm happy,

and then I'm angry
because I think,

"Why did he leave me?
Why did he die?"

And I'm angry,
"I don't want this."

And then I think,
"Yeah, but I have to move on."

That's a great insight.

I'm sure that wasn't built into
the song in the first place.

That's purely a stroke of genius
from Maurice.

That was a big sort of work
to make 'I Was Born To Love You'

to bring it to life
and make it sound like

we were all there in the studio
having a great time.

It never happened.
He wasn't there.

So for Maurice to take that

and take it to a completely
different place

and have this tragedy
built into it,

it's a masterstroke.

That's the world,
it's like this.

There are people dying,

but at the same time there are
people who continue to live.

Good, good, good, good.
OK, good.

Some days it's hard because
your body is in pain.

But when you start to dance,
you forget about everything

because we love to dance.

Check. One, two.

The first proper public show
was due to be in Paris.

And we talked about being there,

we said,
"We'd like to be there."

We thought, "Oh, dear."

Because it's a strange thing
for us to do.

Firstly, we hadn't played
for God knows how long.

We don't have our singer.

It's one song and you have
to get a whole production

for one song,
one performance.

And then this message came from
Elton, saying, "Let's play."

We all remember,
the performance, of course,

when we did the finale
with the whole group,

Queen and Elton John.

Let's sit down.

For us, for everybody,
it was "Wow."

According to the newspapers,
this is the first in a series

of concerts we are doing
together.

A series of concerts, yeah!

I think we'd probably be able
to sell out

the Shepherd's Bush Empire.

Give or take a few seats.

And that was John's last ever
performance.

I could tell he wasn't happy,
cos he was chain smoking

and very, very nervous.

Had been severely traumatised
by losing Freddie.

'Deaky', our dear friend John,
I think he didn't arrive

at the same place as we did.

And John is there,
but John is so desperately

uncomfortable
with the whole thing.

You can see him, his whole body
is reacting against it.

And at the end of it, he says,
"I can never do this again.

I can't do this."

And it was true,
that's the last time

he ever played with us,
John, in public.

Check. One, two.

It was literally like preparing
for a whole tour,

because you have lights, sound,
production rehearsals.

But there's just five minutes

where you will be operational
for 'The Show Must Go On'.

- Loud. Lovely.
- Let's do it loud.

There were moments
when I was watching Maurice

make changes to
the choreography,

right there and then.

It's such a living,
breathing thing with him.

He's like a sculptor.

He shapes every performer
at every instant.

- Yeah, right.
- Remember this.

I'll be there,
stuck in position.

It's a lovely tribute
to the guy.

It's fantastic.

It's immense.

He's a rock star.
Isn't he? He really is.

You just look at him
and you realise that, yeah.

He loves it. Course he loves it.
It's all about performance

and all about getting that
feeling back from the audience

which tells you that you
moved them.

He's so conscious
of his audience.

And you see it
when he takes his bow.

The curtain goes up at the very
end and he doesn't do anything.

He's just there.

You know, it's masterful.

He's the ultimate showman,
isn't he?

And he's able to be there,
because it's real art,

it's what he feels,
but he's playing to his audience

and he's not ashamed of it.

The audience is the most
important thing.

Because really, a performance,
again, it's a love story.

Then we are two, we're on stage
and they are there.

And we make a connection.

The show must go on.

In that world of dance,

you live by the words
'the show must go on'.

And I think for every dancer,
there's a moment when you think,

"I can't do this.
I'm too sick. I'm too tired."

But some spirit inside you

tells you to pick up
and just go one more step.

Lower.

Flat.

The music is magnetic.
It's in your DNA.

Everyone knows Queen music.

And you think, "Will young
people know Queen?" They do.

It goes on and on and on.

There's people that don't really
know about dance

but they come to see the
performance, because it's Queen.

And then, they like dance.

And then, they follow us
forever.

After they come out of a
performance, they're like this.

And then they say,
"We love ballet."

Then for us, it's a pleasure
to bring new people.

Freddie would have loved it.

It was absolutely right up
his street.

He'd have absolutely loved it.
He'd have loved Maurice Béjart.

Freddie Mercury brought ballet
to the people

through Maurice Béjart.

Part of Freddie's legacy
was to enable us

to set up
The Mercury Phoenix Trust,

so we help AIDS projects
all around the world.

People don't really realise.

It's like, "Oh, AIDS
is dealt with, it's fine."

It's not. It's still there.

You can live with HIV now,

which you couldn't
when Freddie died.

So, in the richer countries,
that's lessened the mortality.

But, of course,
in the Third World,

there's still a lot of ignorance
out there.

So that's what they're
trying to fight.

Ignorance.

I'm not the judge of my work.

I love my works. Of course
I love very much the last one.

I love very much the one
that people loved,

because it's natural.

But an artist will never turn
to watch his past.

I was very pleased to have
the music allied with Mozart,

Versace and Maurice Béjart's
wonderful ballet.

It took us to another sphere.

It did something very big
for us.

It changed the way we felt about

the continuing life
of Queen music in the world.

And I'm very happy, very proud
of that moment in time

when Queen music and Mozart

and Maurice Béjart came together
in one place.

Oh, yes!