About us
Czech National Ballet – the present
The Czech National Ballet in Prague occupies a substantial position in the Central European context. Its founding in 1883 gave rise to the continuous evolutionary tradition of Czech professional dance. A truly cosmopolitan company, the Czech National Ballet is currently made up of 82 dancers of 19 nationalities. This diversity affords it a colourful scale of means of expression, reflecting as it does a variety of ethnicities and their differing natures and temperaments. The result is 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, stage directors 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 Czech National Ballet operates at four venues. In the 2023/24 season, the company is scheduled to give 117 performances on Czech stages and 21 shows within foreign tours. Its current repertoire consists of the productions ROMEO AND JULIET, CINDERELLA, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, THE NUTCRACKER – A CHRISTMAS CAROL, ONEGIN, FORSYTHE / CLUG / MCGREGOR, BPM, LA SYLPHIDE and LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE (presented within tours).
Besides performances, we pursue other activities and projects (ballet workshops, pre-performance lectures pertaining to the specific production, autograph sessions), which of late include the educational programme DANCE ON at the New Stage, encompassing open classes, individual coaching and a choreography laboratory, within which the participants witness the gestation of new works. We would also like to inspire dance lovers by affording them the opportunity to observe artists and other employees in action when preparing and giving rise to theatre magic, while adhering to specific rules.
The Czech National Ballet in the 2023/24 season
“I believe that by serving as inspiration theatre plays an essential role in our culture. We identify two components – commitment to innovation and commitment to a troupe of artists, our company – as our core values. It is through the body language of metaphor and in the arena of emotion that our soul is given utterance and our lives with others find common ground. We commit, through that expressiveness, to innovation – we dedicate ourselves to awareness, to the challenge and joie de vivre. Finally, by adhering to these values and being active citizens, we accept our own role in the life of our shared community, nurturing the contacts with our audience and artists, as well as our colleagues at all the National Theatre venues. Bearing in mind these core values – innovation, artistry and active citizenship – our 2023/24 season will be a season of diversity and richness of styles.”
Filip Barankiewicz, Artistic Director of the Czech National Ballet
The 2023/24 season’s flagships are two new productions and a unique project.
The triple bill BEYOND VIBRATIONS is made up of works by distinguished contemporary choreographers: Krzysztof Pastor’s Moving Rooms, Hans van Manen’s Frank Bridge Variations and Marco Goecke’s Fly Paper Bird. Bringing to bear modern movement vocabulary, all three pieces seek singular aesthetics, feature distinct creative refinement and profound metaphoric message, yet are also characterised by vibrating “instruments” – dancing bodies and sonorous strings. Krzysztof Pastor, Hans van Manen and Marco Goecke set their vibrant choreographies to the vibrant music of Alfred Schnittke, Henryk Górecki, Benjamin Britten and Gustav Mahler. The Czech National Ballet has staged Pastor and Goecke works for the very first time. The triple bill premiered on 5 October 2023 at the National Theatre in Prague.
Ronald Hynd’s COPPÉLIA, after Marius Petipa’s version, will extend our collection of story ballets and further enhance the quality of the company’s repertoire. Linking up to our experience, the production will confirm the validity of the classical ballet legacy. The mesmerising comic ballet for audiences young and old is one of the treasures of global culture. It has been staged worldwide ever since its premiere in Paris in 1870. Set to Léo Delibes’s sublime music and featuring Roberta Guidi di Bagno’s enthralling scenery, Hynd’s 1985 choreography radiates classical beauty. The new Czech National Ballet production will receive its premiere on 16 May 2024 at the State Opera in Prague.
HOLO HARMONIES – The Cross-Border Live Experience, a new Mauro Bigonzetti creation, affording the astonishing chance to discover novel dance and music experience, will unfurl simultaneously at the State Opera in Prague and the Theater Baden-Baden. The one and only performance, to be held on 1 December 2023, will be the world premiere of a unique project, unprecedented in terms of scale, blending live theatre and state-of-the-art technologies, virtual reality and holograms. With the dancers sharing the moment on stage with musicians from Baden-Baden, will the audience in Prague distinguish between flesh-and-blood artists and holograms? Can we travel between different realities, can we be concurrently now here and another time elsewhere? Let us conduct a dialogue beyond time and space, shift the limits of perception, and raise questions within artistic and cultural experience, as well as humanity at large.
Czech National Ballet foreign tours
The Czech National Ballet has represented the Czech Republic and spread culture worldwide, yet it has also become a major player in promoting key repertoire ballets and nurturing the global art heritage.
Under its current Artistic director, Filip Barankiewicz, the company has attained great acclaim on foreign tours.
The Czech National Ballet is proud of having had the opportunity to perform abroad works by Jiří Kylián, a Czech native and one of the world’s most distinguished contemporary choreographers, thus interlinking its Central European identity with his legacy.
“I am aware of how much Jiří Kylián means for Czech dancers and audiences. They are proud of his achievements, deeming him a national treasure. Yet Kylián is also a true icon for me and dancers all around the world. He is a remarkable and extremely gifted artist, an inspired creator and a person with a great human dimension. I am happy we could present his works to foreign audiences.”
Filip Barankiewicz
In this context, we can mention the unique collaboration with the Korean National Ballet in the autumn of 2019, within which the Prague company premiered Kylián’s Gods and Dogs at the Seoul Arts Center. An extraordinary event, and the very first appearance of a Czech ballet company in Korea, it was an occurrence of both cultural and political significance. Representing the Czech Republic and its culture, the Czech National Ballet garnered great acclaim. Subsequently, the Korean National Ballet paid a reciprocal visit to Prague and – for the very first time ever – performed at the National Theatre Kylián´s Forgotten Land, with its members dancing in the production Kylián – Bridges of Time (13, 14, 15, 21 and 22 November 2019).
Jiří Kylián – from the text in the programme booklet:
“Tonight you will see two major dance companies from two very different parts of the world, sharing one stage. This is very unusual and very precious. The distance between Prague and Seoul is 8,258 kilometers ...! But this distance will disappear tonight, because people of many different countries, cultures and religions will share the same space and the same time: The dancers of the Korean National Ballet, directed by Sue-jin Kang, and the dancers of the Czech National Ballet, directed by Filip Barankiewicz. I don't remember anything like this ever happening before, but it is wonderful, and I am happy to be part of it. When I was the artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater, one thing was very clear to me: When politicians fight, artists must communicate. I hope that you will enjoy this experience.”
Jiří Kylián, The Hague, the Netherlands
8 September 2019
Another prestigious event within which the Czech National Ballet presented Kylián’s repertoire, was the tour of Israel in November 2021. The company gave four performances at the Tel Aviv Opera / Performing Arts Center (between 25 and 27 November) of the productions Gods and Dogs, Bella Figura, Petite Mort and Six Dances, which was truly unique on the global scale. What is more, the visit symbolised the return of art and society alike following a pause during the lockdown imposed in consequence of the Covid pandemic – the Czech National Ballet was actually the first foreign company allowed to enter Israel at the time.
“A breath-taking Czech ballet ride.”
David Borek, Czech Television correspondent in Israel and the Middle East
Czech Television report within the Události v kultuře (Culture Events) programme
“When, two year ago, Jiří Kylián was named a member of the Académie des beaux-arts in Paris, I thought it would be fantastic to present his work in Israel. And this dream has come true – what is more, amid a difficult time, when until the last moment we were not sure whether it would happen. Yet, also thanks to partners, including airlines, we have ultimately succeeded. I am absolutely delighted that our intention has been materialised, and I feel honoured that the Czech Centre in Israel is part of the project.”
Robert Mikoláš, director of the Czech Centre in Tel Aviv
In 2019, the Czech National Ballet made a grand-scale tour of China. Between 6 October and 3 November, more than 70 of its dancers gave ten performances of the feature-length ballet La Bayadère at theatres in Nanjing, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing. The company members also appeared at two magnificent gala evenings.
Over the past few years, the Czech National Ballet has been invited to Spain on several occasions. After the enthusiastic response to its performance of La Bayadère in Seville in January 2019, the company appeared from 26 to 30 May 2021 before packed auditoriums at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, presenting John Cranko’s Swan Lake. Noteworthy is the fact that the Czech National Ballet was the very first company to perform the choreography abroad (the privilege was previously only enjoyed by the Stuttgarter Ballett, for whom Cranko created the piece).
The Czech National Ballet presented another John Cranko production within its visit to Cagliari, Italy, where from 11 to 19 November 2022 it gave eight tumultuously received performances of his version of Romeo and Juliet with the stage design by Jürgen Rose.
“A fascinating and poetic show, arresting, teeming with colour and vitality. The enraptured audience responded with thunderous ovations.”
(TG24.SKY.IT, 12. 11. 2022)
The Czech National Ballet’s repertoire encompasses classics, as well as modern, contemporary works. In August 2017, the company presented Ohad Naharin’s decadanace in Lappeenranta and Tampere, Finland, where it returned two years later to perform productions of Mauro Bigonzetti’s Vertigo and of Katarzyna Kozielska’s Aspects. In June 2019, the Czech National Ballet presented Aspects along with Ondřej Vinklát’s Dumka and Andrey Kaydanovskiy’s Perfect Example in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Moreover, in January 2023, the company gave two performances of Mauro Bigonzetti’s Kafka: The Trial in Bonn, Germany.