Jiří Kylián

Jiří Kylián started his dance career at the age of nine
at the National Ballet School in Prague. In 1962 he was accepted as a student at the Prague Conservatory. He left Prague when he received a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School in London
in 1967. After that, he joined the Stuttgarter Ballett led by John Cranko. Kylián made his debut as a choreographer there with Paradox for the Noverre Gesellschaft.

After creating three ballets for Nederlands Dans Theater (Viewers, Stoolgame and La Cathédrale Engloutie), he became artistic director of the company in 1975. In 1978 he put Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) on the international map with Sinfonietta. That same year, together with Carel Birnie, he founded NDT 2, which served as a bridge between the school and professional company life and was meant
to give young dancers the opportunity to develop their skills
and talents and to function as a breeding ground for young talent. In 1991 he also initiated NDT 3, a company for older dancers over the age of forty. This three-dimensional structure was unique in the world of dance. After an extraordinary record of service, Kylián handed over the artistic leadership in 1999, but remained associated with the dance company as house choreographer until December 2009.

Jiří Kylián has created nearly 100 works, many of which are performed all over the world. Kylián has not only made works for NDT, but also for the Stuttgarter Ballett, Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris, Bayerisches Staatsoper Münich, Swedish television and the Tokyo Ballet. Kylián has worked with many creative personalities
of international stature – composers: Arne Nordheim (Ariadne, 1997), Toru Takemitsu (Dream Time, 1983) – designers: Walter Nobbe (Sinfonietta, 1978), Bill Katz (Symphony of Psalms, 1978), John Macfarlane (Forgotten Land 1980), Michael Simon (Stepping Stones, 1991), Atsushi Kitagawara (One of a Kind, 1998), Susumu Shingu (Toss of a Dice, 2005), Yoshiki Hishinuma (Zugvögel, 2009). In the summer of 2006, together with Film Art Director, Boris PavalConen,
he created the film CAR-MEN. It was choreographed ‘on location’
at the open-face brown-coal mines in the Czech Republic. In the course of his career, Kylián has received many international awards.

photo: Serge Ligtenberg