Kristina Kornová

Biography

Born in Prague, Kristina Kornová stepped onto the path of dance almost as soon as she could walk. At three, she was already swirling brightly embroidered skirts with the folk ensemble Valášek, touring half of Europe and absorbing the pulse of traditional rhythms. At ten she shared the stage of Jiří Suchý’s legendary Semafor theatre and lent her voice to the musical Les Misérables.

In 2004 she entered the Prague Dance Conservatory, where Jaroslav Slavický, Hana Vláčilová and Kateřina Slavická shaped her innate spontaneity into a crystalline classical line. While still a student she guested with Bohemia Ballet, appearing in works by Petr Zuska, Jiří Kylián and Serge Lifar, and collected early competition trophies – victory in Olomouc, fourth place at an international contest in France, finals in Brno and Prague.

Kristina joined the Czech National Ballet in 2013 and soon impressed with youthful immediacy and magnetic stage presence. In the classics she first appeared among the Big Swans in John Cranko’s Swan Lake and later as the exotically elegant soloist of the Spanish and Arabian Dances in Youri Vámos’s The Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol. Parallel to this she became a sought-after interpreter of modern repertoire: she lent fragile tension to Jan Kodet’s The Little Mermaid, brought Zuska’s gala vignettes to bloom as a “rose”, and distilled silence into the minimalism of Kylián’s Petite Mort and Bella Figura.

Promoted to demi-soloist in the 2020/21 season, she has continued to broaden her palette: slicing space with surgical precision in Forsythe’s The Second Detail, pulsing staccato electricity in Goecke’s Fly Paper Bird, and flickering between fury and stillness in Kajdanovskiy’s Perfect Example. In Viktor Konvalinka’s fairy-tale ballet The Sun, the Moon and the Wind she transforms from a wilful Queen to a mischievous Spider, while in Mauro Bigonzetti’s Scheherazade she becomes one of the King’s final victims.

Although she gravitates naturally towards contemporary expression for its candour and freedom, Kristina values classical ballet for the humility, discipline and infinite nuance it demands – qualities she also nurtures in the project company DEKKADANCERS. Whether clad in white tulle or cutting-edge costume, she remains true to her guiding motto: to pass the joy of movement to the audience before the echo of the final beat fades away.

Classical Repertoire

• Romeo and Juliet – Countess Capulet, Countess Montague (John Cranko)

• Swan Lake – Leading Swans (John Cranko)

• The Nutcracker – A Christmas Story – Spanish Dance, Arabian Dance (Youri Vámos)

Contemporary and Neoclassical Repertoire

• Beyond Vibartions – Fly Paper Bird (Marco Geocke)

• Bon Appétit! – Girl with an Orange, Singer (Jan Kodet)

• bpm – ARTZA (Eyal Dadon), Bill (Sharon Eyal)

• Dance On... Soloist Rehearsal – Kafka: The Trial – Performed (Mauro Bigonzetti)

• Forsythe / Clug / McGregor – The Second Detail (William Forsythe), Handman (Edward Clug)

• Kafka: The Trial – Newspaper Girl (Mauro Bigonzetti)

• Kylián – Bridges of Time – Petite Mort, Bella Figura, Gods and Dogs (Jiří Kylián)

• L'Histoire de Manon – Madam (Kenneth MacMillan)

• Leonce & Lena – Governess (Christian Spuck)

• The Little Mermaid – Foreign Princess (Jan Kodet)

• The Nutcracker and the Plush Mouse – You (Petr Zuska)

• Ohad Naharin: Decadance – Solo (Ohad Naharin)

• Phoenix – Prelude und Liebestod (Cayetano Soto)

• Sarcasms – ...And How Is Your Life? – Anger (Andrej Kajdanovskij)

• Scheherazade – Companion, The King's Last Victim (Mauro Bigonzetti)

• Slavic Temperament – Dumka (Ondřej Vinklát), Perfect Example (Andrej Kajdanovskij)

• The Sun, the Moon and the Wind – Queen, Spider (Viktor Konvalinka)