Jiri Kylián

Choreographer

Born in Prague in 1947 and initially driven by the desire to become a circus acrobat, Kylián began his dance training at the ballet school of the Prague National Theatre and continued at the conservatory in his home city. For the 1967/68 academic year, he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London. There he met John Cranko, who engaged him as a dancer at the Stuttgart Ballet from the 1968/69 season onwards and also encouraged his choreographic development. In 1975, Kylián left Germany to work with Hans Knill as artistic co-director of the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), founded in 1959, for which he had previously created various pieces as a guest choreographer. In 1978, he became the sole artistic director of the NDT, which set up a junior company (later NDT II) in 1978 and a company for dancers over the age of 40 (NDT III) in 1991. Kylián invited Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Christopher Bruce, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, Jorma Elo, Johan Inger and Medhi Walerski, among others, to work choreographically with the NDT; several of these choreographers had joined the NDT as dancers before. Kylián stepped down as artistic director of the NDT in 1999, but remained Resident Choreographer until 2009. He has received many honours for his work, including the Order of Orange from Queen Beatrix herself in 2008. In 2019, he was awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse for his lifetime achievement, and in 2024 the Order of the White Lion, the highest honour in the Czech Republic, at the rank of Commander.

Kylián's choreography Nuages was performed at the Ballet of Bavarian State Opera as early as 1980 and was added to the repertoire of the Bavarian State Ballet in 1992. In the same year, Svadebka (Les noces) was staged, followed by Sinfonietta in 1994. In 2002, the company dedicated an entire evening to the choreographer with the portrait Jiři Kylian, which set Svadebka, Bella Figura and Sechs Tänze in relation to each other. In 2009, Kylián created Zugvögel for Bayerisches Staatsballett, and in 2012 the company added the piece Gods and Dogs to its repertoire.

(Information as of December 2024)