Jiří Kylián (born 21 March 1947) is a Czech former dancer and

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in ...

choreographer.

Life

Jiří Kylián was born in 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to his father Václav who was a banker and to his mother Markéta, who was as a young teenager a dancer-child protégée. Initially inspired by the acrobatic performances of the , Kylián decided to pursue professional ballet training at the School of the National Ballet Prague at the age of 9, after having seen a ballet performance for the first time. Kylián was admitted to the Prague conservatory in 1962. Here he encountered one of his mentors, teacher and former dancer Zora Šemberová, "who left a deep mark in Jiří's professional development". At the conservatory Kylián made his first steps as a choreographer with ''Nine Eighth's'', choreographed to jazz music, and ''Quartet'', to music by

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hu ...

. In 1967 Kylián received a scholarship to study at the Royal Ballet School in London. Among other artists, Kylián met choreographer

John Cranko John Cyril Cranko (15 August 1927 – 26 June 1973) was a South African ballet dancer and choreographer with the Royal Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet. Life and career Early life Cranko was born in Rustenburg in the former province of Transv ...

, who offered him to join the Stuttgart Ballet.

Work

He joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1968 and worked under Cranko, where he began to work as a choreographer. At Stuttgart Ballet Kylián started choreographing with ''Paradox'' (1970), ''Kommen und Gehen'' (1970), and continued in the Stuttgart Ballet's Noverre Kompanie with ''Incantations'' (1971), ''Einzelgänger'' (1972) and ''Blaue Haut'' (1974), among others. Three years after the death of Cranko (1973), Kylián became Artistic Director of

Nederlands Dans Theater Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT; literal translation Netherlands Dance Theatre) is a Dutch contemporary dance company. NDT is headquartered at the ''Amare'' building in The Hague. NDT also performs at other venues in the Netherlands, including Amste ...

(NDT) in 1976. His best known works for NDT include ''Symphony of Psalms'' (1978), '' Stamping Ground'' (1983), ''Dream Time'' (1983), and ''Silent Cries'' (1986). His style included exploration of the limitations and capabilities of space, body parts, entrances and exits, contrasts, and humor. Both Jiří Kylián's works created in 1983, ''Stamping Ground'' and ''Dream Time'', were inspired by his personal interests and travels to

Aboriginal Australia The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the colonisation of Australia in 1788, which marks the start of consistent written documentation of Australia. This period has been vari ...

, as documented by director Hans Hulscher in the documentary, ''Road to the Stamping Ground''. Aboriginal ceremonial dances are used as blueprints within the work ''Stamping Ground'', which included among its original cast

Nacho Duato Juan Ignacio Duato Bárcia, also known as Nacho Duato (born 8 January 1957) is a Spanish modern ballet dancer and choreographer. Since 2014, Duato is artistic director of the Berlin State Ballet. Career Nacho Duato studied at the Rambert S ...

and Jim Vincent. During Kylián's directorship at the NDT, a second company for younger dancers was created, Nederlands Dans Theater 2 (NDT II). In 1992, he started a chamber company for dancers over 40, Nederlands Dans Theater 3 (NDT III). Kylián's main works include:

''Forgotten Land'' (1981)

''Forgotten Land'' 1981 explores memories, events and people that over time are lost or forgotten and how people sometimes vainly try to recover them, or a sense of them in order to regain their former power and value. The work itself is inspired and based on a painting of women on a beach by the Norwegian Expressionist painter

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, '' The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the d ...

. The work mainly involves duets who move their arms in various stretched positions, as if they were reaching out for something. The dancers arch their backs and dance expressively, reflecting both the music and the haunting painting that influenced the work. Kylián makes a statement of lost homelands, lost lovers and lost times and there are also duets that reflect violent moods. These duets end up as a large ensemble and then the women are left on the shore, stretching their arms again like birds that cannot fly.

''Falling Angels'' (1989)

''Falling Angels'' is a part of the ''Black and White'' ballets, which were created in 1989 with 8 white female dancers dressed in black leotards. It was performed to drumming/percussion music based on ceremonial ritual music from Ghana (West Africa). Musical rhythms and patterns are used and mixed in a synthesizer to produce a layered effect in some sections. The result of this a more energetic, sometimes frenzied sound that the dancers match in a very physical dance. ''Falling Angels'' depicts females and female dancers in their aim to achieve perfection but succumb in various stages to the human female psyche and female events such as ambition, seduction, pregnancy, birth, death, motherhood and self-awareness. It is about the things that pull and push a dancer from the 'purity' of dance and performance. Kylián was influenced by surrealism and minimalism during the creation of this work and the 'black and white ballets'. In this ballet we see the combination of classical lines and sharp percussive movements that give unpredictability to the piece as a whole.

''Petite Mort'' (1991)

''Petite Mort'' was composed for the 1991

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...

on the second centenary of Mozart's death with six men, six women, and six foils. Assistant choreographer was Roslyn Anderson, costumes by Joke Visser, and music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart included Piano Concerto in A major – Adagio and Piano Concerto in C major – Andante.

Other works

Theatre works from 1973 to 2014 * ''Paradox'' (1970) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Kommen und gehen'' (1970) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Incantations'' (1971) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Der Einzelgänger'' (1972) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Der stumme Orpheus'' (1972) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Viewers'' (1973) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Blaue Haut / Blue skin'' (1974) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Der Morgen danach'' (1974) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Stoolgame'' (1974) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''La Cathédrale engloutie'' (1975) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Rückkehr ins fremde Land / Return to a strange land'' (1975) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''

Verklärte Nacht ''Verklärte Nacht'' (''Transfigured Night''), Op. 4, is a string sextet in one movement composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1899. Composed in just three weeks, it is considered his earliest important work. It was inspired by Richard Dehmel's p ...

/ Transfigured night'' (1975) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Torso'' (1975) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Nuages'' (1976) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Elegia'' (1976) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Symphony in d'' (1976) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''November steps'' (1977) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Ariadne'' (1977) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Kinderspelen'' (1978) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Sinfonietta'' (1978) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Intimate pages'' (1978) Sabine Kupferberg * ''Rainbow snake'' (1978) Nederlands Dans Theater * ''Psalmensymfonie /

Symphony of Psalms The ''Symphony of Psalms'' is a choral symphony in three movements composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1930 during his neoclassical period. The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orc ...

'' (1978) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * '' Glagolitic Mass'' (1979) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Dream dances'' (1979) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Soldatenmis / Field Mass'' (1980) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Overgrown path'' (1980) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Forgotten land / Vergessenes Land'' (1981) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''Nomaden / Nomads'' (1981) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Svadebka'' (1982) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ''Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen'' (''Songs of a Wayfarer'') is a song cycle by Gustav Mahler on his own texts. The cycle of four ''lieder'' for medium voice (often performed by women as well as men) was written around 1884–85 in the wake of ...

/ Songs of a Wayfarer'' (1982) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * '' Stamping Ground'' (1983) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Dream time'' (1983) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Curses and blessings ''(1983) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Wiegenlied'' (1983) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I and II) * ''Return to a strange land'' (1984) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Valencia'' (1984) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * '' L'enfant et les sortilèges'' (1984) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Heart's labyrinth'' ( 1984) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Heart's labyrinth II'' (1985) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Piccolo mondo'' (1985) Scapino Ballet * ''Silent cries'' (1986) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * '' L'Histoire du soldat'' (1986) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Sechs Tänze / Six dances'' (1986) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Frankenstein !!'' (1987) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Sint joris rijdt uit'' (1987) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Evening songs'' (1987) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Kaguyahime'' (1988) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''No more play'' (1988) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Tanz-schul'' (1989) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Falling angels'' (1989) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Sweet dreams'' (1990) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Sarabande'' (1990) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Feuillet d'automne'' (1990) Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris * ''Un ballo'' (1991) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT II) * ''Petite mort'' (1991) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Obscure temptations'' (1991) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT III) * ''Stepping stones'' (1991) Stuttgarter Ballett * ''As if never been'' (1992) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''No sleep till dawn of day'' (1992) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT III) * ''Whereabouts unknown'' (1993) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Tiger lily'' (1994) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Perfect conception'' (1994) The Tokyo Ballet * ''Double you'' (1994) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT III) * ''Arcimboldo'' (1994) Nederlands Dans Theater I / II / III * ''

Bella Figura Bella is a feminine given name. It is a diminutive form of names ending in -bella. ''Bella'' is related to the Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Latin words for beautiful, to the name Belle, meaning ''beautiful'' in French. It increased in ...

'' (1995) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Anna and the ostriches'' (1996) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Tears of laughter'' (1996) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT III) * ''Trompe-l'œil'' (1996) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT II) * ''If only…'' (1996) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT III) * ''Compass'' (1996) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT III) * ''Wings of wax'' (1997) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''A way a lone'' (1998) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT III) * ''One of a kind'' (1998) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Indigo rose'' (1998) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT II) * ''Half past'' (1999) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Doux mensonges'' (1999) Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris * ''Arcimboldo 2000'' (2000) Nederlands Dans Theater I / II / III * ''Click – pause – silence'' (2000) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Birth-day'' (2001) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT III) * ''Blackbird'' (2001) Saitama Arts Theater * ''Claude Pascal'' (2002) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''When time takes time'' (2002) Saitama Arts Theater and Nederlands Dans Theater III * ''Far too close'' (2002) Saitama Arts Theater and Nederlands Dans Theater III * ''Last touch'' (2003) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Il faut qu'une porte'' (2004) Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris * ''Sleepless'' (2004) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT II) * ''Toss of a dice'' (2005) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Chapeau'' (2005) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT II) * ''Tar and feathers'' (2006) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Vanishing twin'' (2008) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Last touch first'' (2008) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Gods and dogs'' (2008) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT II) * ''Zugvögel'' (2009) Bayerisches Staatsballett München * ''Mémoires d'oubliettes'' (2009) Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I) * ''Anonymous'' (2011) Kylworks * ''East shadow'' (2013) Aichi Mini Theatre * ''Fortune cookies'' (2014) Kylworks * ''Inauguration'' (2019) Films from 2006 to 2017 *''Car-Men'' (2006) *''Between entrance and exit'' (2013) *''Schwarzfahrer'' (2014) * Scalamare (2017)

Awards

*1994 ''Dance Magazine Award'' New York * 1995 ''Decoration of the Royal Dutch order of Oranje-Nassau'' * 1997 Golden Medal for Outstanding Merit from President Václav Havel, Prague * 2000 ''Sir Laurence Olivier Award'', London * 2000 Honorary Doctorate, Music Academy of Prague * 2000 Three "''Nijinsky award''", Monte Carlo; in the following categories: as choreographer, for choreography, for company (for unique structure of NDT: NDT I, NDT II, NDT III) * 2001 ''Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'', Paris *2006 '' Thalia Award'' – College Special Award (Czech Republic) *2008 ''Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement'', Biennale Venezia *2011 ''Award for exceptional achievement in the field of Dance and Choreography'', Czech Ministry of Culture, Prague * 2018 ''Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Member of Institute Français'', Académie des Beaux Arts, Paris

Notes

External links

*
Jiří Kylián in Czech National Theater Archive

Jiří Kylián on Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze (Czechoslovak film database)

Nederlands Dans Theater – Finale from ''Petite Mort''
* *
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet – Stamping Ground (Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival 2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kylian, Jiri 1947 births Czech choreographers Dancers from Prague Living people People educated at the Royal Ballet School Prix Benois de la Danse winners Recipients of the Thalia Award