About Czech National Ballet
The Czech National Ballet in Prague occupies a solid position in the Central European context. Its founding in 1883 gave rise to the continuous evolutionary tradition of Czech professional dance. The largest in the country, the Czech National Ballet is a truly cosmopolitan company, today made up of 76 dancers of 19 nationalities. This diversity affords it a colourful scale of means of expression, with the result being a blending together of numerous dance schools and styles, mutual enrichment and inspiration.
The Czech National Ballet’s dialogue with global dance theatre has been cultivated over the long term, with this trend having been further developed by its current Artistic Director, Filip Barankiewicz.
Ranking among the big players of the European dance scene, the company has enhanced its renown by regularly collaborating with foreign choreographers, coaches, stagers and designers. The experience with various movement phraseologies serves to spice up the artistic work, helping the company to find its Central European identity.
“The centrepiece of our artistic vision is the commitment to offering audiences a variegated repertoire, encompassing classical, neoclassical and contemporary works. We believe that such a large variety of styles affords both the dancers and the theatre-goers profound and fulfilling experiences. We do our utmost to make our repertoire balanced yet dynamic, ranging from iconic classical ballets to top-notch contemporary creations. We showcase the Czech National Ballet artists’ talent and versatility,” says Filip Barankiewicz, Artistic Director of the Czech National Ballet.
The Czech National Ballet operates at four venues. In the 2025/26 season, the company will give 129 performances, including within foreign tours. Over the past few years, it has guested in Italy (Turin, Cagliari), Spain (Valencia, Barcelona, Sevilla), Oman (Muscat), Belgium (Liège), Hong Kong (Hong Kong Arts Festival Society) and Germany (Ludwigsburg, Ludwigshafen, Bonn).
The Czech National Ballet’s vision for the 2025/26 season is bold and diverse, combining tradition with modernity. The programme is in line with our mission to present a repertoire embracing the entire ballet world, ranging from iconic classical works to progressive contemporary choreographies, providing profound and transcendent experiences to our artists and spectators alike.
The programme of the 2025/26 season features three remarkable new productions by internationally celebrated choreographers. The first is John Neumeier’s Liliom, which received its Czech premiere on 23 October 2025 at the State Opera. Based on Ferenc Molnár’s eponymous play and depicting a tragic love story, the ballet unfurls to Michel Legrand’s music, uniquely combining classical and jazz.
On 12 March 2026 the National Theatre will host the opening night of the triple bill Avant-Garde, consisting of Jiří Kylián’s masterpiece 27’52” and two brand-new works: Robert Bondara’s 4 Seasons and Marco Goecke’s Lovebirds. The three renowned choreographers’ works display fascinating dance idioms.
The season will culminate with the double bill Who Cares?, paying homage to the legendary dancer creator George Balanchine, to premiere on 18 June 2026 at the State Opera. The production features Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet and Who Cares?, neoclassical gems of timeless beauty.
The Czech National Ballet’s resolve to support creativity and originality manifests in its collaborating with globally respected choreographers, as well as in commissioning new works, cases in point being Viktor Konvalinka and Štěpán Benyovszký’s vivid and poetic production The Sun, the Moon and the Wind, and Mauro Bigonzetti’s Scheherazade, promising an unforgettable visual and emotional experiences.
The company has returned into its repertoire such splendid classics as Swan Lake (choreographed by John Cranko), Coppélia (choreographed by Ronald Hynd), and L'Histoire de Manon (choreographed by sir Kenneth MacMillan), and also John Cranko’s lauded adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Constituting a crucial link with ballet’s copious history, they also serve as great inspiration for today’s performers. The mixed bills Beyond Vibrations and Sarcasms attest to the company’s stylistic versatility and current artistic value, shifting the very borders of the art form.
A special highlight of the season is Youri Vàmos’s much-loved The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol, which appears on the repertoire every year upon the spectators’ request. On 6 January 2026, the magical production was performed concurrently at the National Theatre and the State Opera, an unprecedented event.
Naturally inherent with the Czech National Ballet’s mission are its foreign activities, which over the past few years have become an inseparable part of its artistic identity. Tours abroad are no longer mere sporadic projects, they are the fruit of a systematically built up network of international contacts and long-term partnerships.
The Czech National Ballet regularly gives performances on prominent European stages. Within repeated visits to the Teatro Regio Torino, it has presented both classical (The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Márcia Haydée) and 20th-century ballets (Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet, and others). Furthermore, the company has appeared at the Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and in Liège. After almost half a century, it returned to Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki – Opera Narodowa, performing the triple bill VIBRATIONS. Consisting of works by Marco Goecke, Hans van Manen and Sharon Eyal, the production serves to confirm the company’s dexterity and mastery of the challenging contemporary repertoire.
Besides Europe, the Czech National Ballet has garnered acclaim in Asia. Particularly noteworthy in this respect is its tour of China and reciprocal collaboration with the Korean National Ballet in Seoul, as well as presentation of Jiří Kylián’s works in Tel Aviv. In 2025, the company appeared at the prestigious Hong Kong Arts Festival, where it performed La Sylphide. Highly successful was its guesting at the Royal Opera House Muscat with one of the oldest and most popular comic ballets, La Fille mal gardée, showcasing its technical maturity and ability to respond to different cultural milieux.
Foreign tours do not merely entail presentations of the individual productions, they also bear witness to the company’s continuous openness to engaging in international dialogue. An institution firmly anchored in the Central European tradition, the Czech National Ballet is concurrently fully integrated into the contemporary global ballet scene.