Tereza Podařilová

Biography

Tereza Podařilová is a legendary Czech ballet artist, long-time principal dancer of the National Theatre Ballet in Prague, and currently its ballet mistress and a teacher at the Prague Dance Conservatory. She built her reputation on a combination of virtuosic classical technique, dramatic instinct, and exceptional interpretative intelligence.

Education and Early Career

From 1982 to 1990, she studied at the Prague Dance Conservatory, where she impressed with her talent and exceptional dedication. During her studies, she completed internships at the Tanzakademie Köln (1988–1990, 1993), which opened the door to the European ballet scene. Immediately after graduating in 1990, she joined the National Theatre Ballet, was promoted to soloist in 1992, and in 2003 became the company’s principal dancer.

Leading Roles and Repertoire

Early in her career, she shone in title roles such as Sylvia, Kitri in Don Quixote, and Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. She went on to portray some of the most iconic heroines of the classical repertoire: Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Swanhilda in Coppélia, Raymonda, Nikiya and Gamzatti in La Bayadère, and Marie and later the dreamlike Clara in Youri Vámos’ The Nutcracker – A Christmas Story. Her dramatic depth came to the fore in roles such as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Tatiana in Onegin, and Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew.

In the modern and neoclassical repertoire, she performed an impressive range of roles. She excelled in works by Jiří Kylián (Sinfonietta, Return to a Strange Land, Stamping Ground, Petite Mort), Petr Zuska (Ways 03, Between Mountains, Ibbur or Prague Mystery, Requiem, BREL – VYSOTSKY – KRYL / Solo for Three), Nacho Duato (Jardí Tancat), Alvin Ailey (River), Itzik Galili (Through Nana’s Eyes), and George Balanchine (Who Cares?, Divertimento, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux). Her comedic talent shone through in Some Like It…, where she portrayed the Soloist of the Dance Troupe.

A unique chapter of her career was her long-standing collaboration with academic painter Jan Kunovský, culminating in the dance-art project Sirael at the Kolowrat Theatre. The project was also adapted into a film of the same name in cooperation with Czech Television. She continues to choreograph for visual arts projects to this day.

Awards

Tereza Podařilová is the first and so far only artist to have received four Thalia Awards – for her roles in Carmen (1997), The Taming of the Shrew (2003), Tatiana in Onegin (2005), and Marquise de Merteuil in Valmont (2014). She is also the recipient of the Philip Morris Ballet Flower Award (1993) and the Pushkin Legacy Award for her role as Tatiana (2000). Between 1999 and 2003, she repeatedly won the Most Popular Dancer Award, and in 2006 she received the National Theatre Honorary Plaque and the Kobanadi Award presented by Komerční banka.

In 2025, she was inducted into the National Theatre Hall of Fame.

Teaching and Ballet Master Work

She ended her active stage career in 2019 and has since worked as a ballet mistress with the National Theatre Ballet. She also devotes herself to training new talent through ballet workshops, where she passes on her artistic ethos and experience to the next generation of dancers.

Media and Other Activities

Her rich artistic journey is the focus of the documentary Tereza Podařilová, Time of a Prima Ballerina, premiered at the Golden Prague Festival 2020. She was also featured in an earlier time-lapse documentary A Year with a Prima Ballerina. She has long contributed to both expert and public-facing projects supporting Czech ballet.

Through her extraordinary talent, broad repertoire, and educational legacy, Tereza Podařilová remains one of the most influential figures in Czech ballet.