LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) – Maurice Bejart – who sought to bring ballet to younger audiences with his provocative choreography, stunning critics with his avant-garde dances – died Thursday, his ballet company said. He was 80.

Bejart, hospitalized last week with heart and kidney trouble, died early Thursday at Lausanne’s University Hospital, said Emmanuel de Bourgknecht, administrator of the Bejart Ballet Lausanne.

The French-born Bejart set new standards during a career that spanned five decades, starting with his signature work, the 1959 staging of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” in which his dancers – clad in sleek, shiny tights – created an erotic aura with impulsive, natural movements that became a standard of his interpretations.

His Ballet of the 20th Century, formed a year later at Brussels’ Monnaie theater, became hugely successful on the back of his provocative choreography.

However, some of his more avant-garde works garnered criticism, such as his 1960 version of Franz Lehar’s “Merry Widow,” which drew boos and hisses at its premiere even as it brought in younger ballet fans.

Bejart eventually clashed with the management at the Monnaie, which he accused of concentrating on opera at the expense of ballet. He moved his company to Switzerland in 1987, renaming it the Bejart Ballet, in a snub to theaters trying to woo him back to his native France.

Bejart was born in Marseille, France, as Maurice Jean Berger. His mother died when he was seven, and his father worked as a fertilizer salesman while teaching himself Chinese, eventually becoming a teacher and later, general chief of universities.

Physically frail as a child, the young Maurice Berger enrolled in ballet school at age 14 as therapy. He later left for Paris and London, taking on the name Bejart, maiden name of the wife of the 17th century French playwright Moliere.

The diminutive Bejart made his debut as a dancer in his hometown in 1945.

After struggling in the 1950s with early attempts at choreography in Paris, he shot to fame at the end of the decade with “Rite of Spring,” in which pagans sacrifice a virgin to mark the end of winter.

Bejart stripped classical balletic steps and replaced them with novel features – including 50 dancers writhing in a mass – winning popular and critical acclaim. “Rite of Spring” moved to the Festival of Nations in Paris a year later and won the Grand Prix in choreography.

His production of “Merry Widow” was more divisive. Critics accused Bejart with turning a frivolous work into a social protest, particularly in the final scene, which was set among murdered soldiers and smoldering ruins. But it became a hit with younger audiences.

He employed similar anti-war sentiments in “Romeo and Juliet.” Other productions aimed to shock with costumes depicting nudity.

“We have to stop being racist between classic and modern dance,” said Bejart.

In 1985, he opened the 20th Century Ballet season in New York with a two-hour murder mystery dance that was typical of his love for piecing together collages of classical dance with shards of humor and camp, changes of pace and direction, snippets of varied music and flashes of wit.

In a performance of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome” – in which a female dancer is supposed to ask for the head of John the Baptist – Bejart gave the title role to a young man in a skirt.

Bejart, a close friend of the late fashion designer Gianni Versace, recently wrote and choreographed a two-part ballet, “Thank you, Gianni, With Love,” which played in Milan on the 10th anniversary of Versace’s murder.

French Culture Minister Christine Albanel called Bejart “one of the greatest choreographers of our time.”

He “played an essential role in making a large number of people love contemporary dance, without ever ceding to the easy way out or renouncing his deep demands as an artist,” she said. “He never stopped surprising us, until the end.”

Bejart is survived by a sister. His longtime companion, Argentine dancer Jorge Donn, died in 1992. A memorial service for Bejart will take place Monday in Lausanne’s Theatre du Metropole.

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