Bejart commemorative stamp

[rg]

this stamp-collector's item caught my eye for the presence of Farrell.

i was rather stunned to note, once i acquired it. that Farrell's identity is nowhere to be found on the postcard.

it's a photo i'd not seen before.

the funny(?) thing about the caption is that the dancer most front and center is Farrell and all the captioning notes is the presence of Bejart and Donn.

oh well, those of us who know, know...

[the little strip of design at the bottom of the card's message side may be blocking out some writing of the original owner's; the paper strip is glued in place and removing or lifting it would likely damage the card.]

[carbro]

Farrell was in Brussels for what? Five years? Is it possible that among non-ballet obsessed people (yes, there are some), she is not so well remembered?

[rg]

of course it's possible people wouldn't remember, etc. but the individuals who put together the card, and who had to get the photo credits, etc. might have asked who the ballerina was in the grouping of the picture chosen for the purpose of this stamp collector's item.

[SandyMcKean]

Quite amazing rg! Thanks for sharing your find.

The lack of Farrell's name when clearly, as you suggest, any dodo who might have gathered the materials needed to produce such a card could hardly have not asked "Who's the girl??!!", likely makes the card even more valuable. I have no interest in collecting such things, but that card, with that story, makes it desirable even to such as me!

[Farrell Fan]

Lovely photo of Farrell, rg, thanks. The baby face has been superseded by the mature beauty still discernable today.

[perky]

I would also be nice to know what ballet they are rehearsing. Maybe Bejart's Romeo and Juliet?

[sandik]

Does anyone know what the usual rules are about putting people on stamps in Belgium (in the US, the subject has to have been dead for at least 10 years (unless you're a former president) before you can appear on a stamp.

[SandyMcKean]

sandik's comment raises the question in my mind: Who is the person on the actual stamp? I assumed it to be Bejart.....but now I wonder.

[bart]

sandik's comment raises the question in my mind: Who is the person on the actual stamp? I assumed it to be Bejart.....but now I wonder.

I certainly looks like Donn. The hand-stamp says "Maurice Bejart 1927-2007." But I doubt that Bejart ever had lats -- or hair, for that matter -- like that.

Here's a photo I Googled of Donn and Bejart side by side.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...%26tbs%3Disch:1

[Alymer]

Well, it's certainly Bejart supporting Farrell, with Donn watching, hands on hips. And Farrell danced a great number of pieces from the Bejart rep as well as taking the leading female role in his Nijinsky and Golestan ballets.

[Lidewij]

I don't think there are any specific rules about the people they put on stamps here. There are a number "limited edition" series of stamps every year to celebrate certain events, .. So I'd think this would be an example of that.

But I would like to note I know next to nothing about stamps, so I'm absolutely not sure.

[SandyMcKean]

Well, it's certainly Bejart supporting Farrell, with Donn watching, hands on hips.

Look more closely at rg's original post. I'm not talking about the postcard picture with Farrell on it, but more related to sandik's question, I am talking about the photo on the stamp itself.

bart, I thought it looked like Donn too. but then I thought it strange that a stamp commemorating Bejart wouldn't have his picture on it. I thought maybe it was a photo from his dancing youth.

[bart]

bart, I thought it looked like Donn too. but then I thought it strange that a stamp commemorating Bejart wouldn't have his picture on it. I thought maybe it was a photo from his dancing youth.

A quick Google turned up this performance photo (possibly from Bejart's time at Ballet Suedois?).

http://www.olats.org/schoffer/img/mbcysp.jpg

The Times (UK) obituary reports the following, which does not sound like he was a Donn type in his youth:

He also began ballet classes at the Marseilles Opera, making his inauspicious debut as (by his own account) a weedy-looking grub crawling out of an apple in Le Festin de l'araignée.

[Farrell Fan]

My stamp-collecting days ended long ago, but it seems to me that the only "official" indication that this object is a philatelic homage to Bejart is the postmark. The stamp itself may have been intended (perhaps years earlier) as a generic tribute to "the spirit of dance" or some such, and we all know that though "ballet is woman," for Bejart, dance was man. What makes the thing worth having is the photograph, which is beautiful. Thanks again, rg.

[SandyMcKean]

the photograph.......which is beautiful

Agreed!

I never saw her dance, but I've seen videos of course. My "fan-ship" became official after reading her autobiography "Holding on to the Air". She particularly beguiled me in the "Elusive" documentary. Her honesty and authenticity totally won me over. I have since gone to the PNB library to watch her in the Balanchine Trust Interpreters videos (Monumentum and Movements). That was the best of all.

[Jack Reed]

It seems surprising to us "who know", as rg aptly puts it, that Farrell is not credited on the card regardless of who is on the stamp, but I wonder if some Belgian nationalism doesn't come into it, not just who goes on a stamp but who a publisher of postcards would put on one of those. Bejart and Donn may have been regarded as something like favorite sons or national institutions, worthy of some patriotic regard (I believe his company was heavily subsidized in the Continental manner), and maybe she was regarded by many of those who even knew of her presence as an American who was there temporarily. In this connection, I recall Bejart's touching remarks, made for a different reason of course, in Elusive Muse, the documentary video about her, which show he knew immediately and before anyone else, that her time with him was temporary, though he was deeply grateful for what he had of it, all the same.

Agree about the photograph! My thanks, rg!

[Mashinka]

Bejart and Donn may have been regarded as something like favorite sons or national institutions, worthy of some patriotic regard (I believe his company was heavily subsidized in the Continental manner), and maybe she was regarded by many of those who even knew of her presence as an American who was there temporarily.

If I recall correctly, Jorge Donn was Argentinian, not Belgian and of course Bejart was French. Bejart in fact fell out with his adopted country somewhat when he upped sticks and relocated to Switzerland. At the time that Farrell was a member, the company was highly international with dancers from umpteen different countries. The Ballet of the XXth Century was never Belgian in any sense other than having the Brussels base.

[Lidewij]

Béjarts year of death is printed on the back of the card, so it can't be very old..

[rg]

meant to provide this additional scan earlier but then couldn't find where the card was 'filed'.

here it is. it has what i suppose stamp collector's understand as a special day of issue or somesuch postmark.

as i think is now clear the dancer on the stamp is Donn.

f.y.i.

[richard53dog]

meant to provide this additional scan earlier but then couldn't find where the card was 'filed'.

here it is. it has what i suppose stamp collector's understand as a special day of issue or somesuch postmark.

as i think is now clear the dancer on the stamp is Donn.

f.y.i.

Thanks rg, I thought it looked like Donn and not Bejart