About the ensamble

The DJKT ballet ensemble off ers to theatre spectators, for whom a ballet performance has become a permanent cultural part of their lives, a broad range of dance art. The ensemble is aware that the spectators’ requirements are becoming more demanding due to competitiveness of theatre genres, and that only through well-thought dramaturgy and high ambitions for interpretation they can compare in such a competitive environment. The Pilsen Theatre has had a long ballet tradition since the 60s of the 19th century.

However, the ensemble’s performances and repertoire used to be quite modest until 1945; moreover, ballet existed only as part of opera and operetta performances. Nevertheless, Pilsen has always been a theatre where Czech professional dance celebrities had grown up and later went on to perform in the National Theatre in Prague. The solid professional foundations of the ensemble began to be build by Josef Škoda, a ballet director, in 1948–51. In the next four decades when the ensemble was being developed by important choreographers such as Jiří Němeček, Luboš Ogoun, Věra Untermüllerová and Gustav Voborník, Pilsen became a prominent ballet theatre in the Czech Republic and it still holds this position nowadays.

In the middle of the 90s dramaturgy was enlivened by impressive wide-format musical and ballet collages of ballet director Robert Balogh; in addition, some famous Czech and Slovak choreographers were working in the theatre at that time, such as Pavel Šmok, Ján Ďurovčík and Libor Vaculík.

Since 2003 Jiří Pokorný has been the art director of the ensemble, a great dancer himself who has been dancing as a ballet soloist in the National Theatre in Prague, has been awarded multiple times with the Thálie Award, the Czech Literary Fund Award and Philip Morris Ballet Flower.

The ballet development trend in recent years emphasises an emotional and dramatic line of performances and strives for containing and expressing tension and complexity of relationships using its specific language.

Moreover, the DJKT ballet does not only have a technical background to do this but also dramaturgy experience. One line of its works is determined by an eff ort to pass over permanent cultural values; therefore, every season it off ers some of classical ballet performances. The unique experience is staging currently all three big ballets by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty).

On the other hand, the ensemble emphasises original production performances by current famous composers such as Petr Malásek, Petr Wajsar, and Michal Pavlíček.

Libor Vaculík introduced two world dance premiers: Edith – the Sparrow from the Suburb and The Bloody Lady od Čachtice. The fi rst one has become a permanent performance: the ensemble took it abroad and the majority of the Czech dance theatres performed it as well. The current ensemble director, Jiří Pokorný, began his choreography career with a modern twist on a Macbeth theme and former soloist Alena Pešková introduced herself with an individual choreographic adaptation of some original pieces such as The Garden and Maryša. The professional development of talented dancers is also ensured, besides playing in the theatre, by participating and succeeding in dance competitions. For example, Ivona Jeličová has grown into a fantastic soloist as she was nominated three times for the Thálie Award. In 2009 she won the award for the title role in the ballet Maryša. Jiří Žalud received a unique Thálie Award for his life-time achievement in ballet. This award usually crowns a closed artist’s career but Jiří Žalud, who is over 70 years old, still dances in the Pilsen Theatre and after 50 years of dancing he keeps landing new roles.