Maurice Béjart was a ballet dancer and choreographer, born in France and naturalized Swiss posthumously. Based successively in Paris, Brussels, and Lausanne, he is recognized as a choreographer, having widely toured with the ballet company he founded in Belgium in 1960, "Ballet of the 20th Century". He founded several dance schools, one of which, the Rudra School in Lausanne, is still open and is one of the most famous professional dance schools in the world. He was appointed to the Académie des Beaux Arts from 1994 until his death.