Jiří Kylián —

Choreographer

Jiří Kylián (Czech Republic 1947) started his dance career at the age of nine, at the School of the National Ballet in Prague. He left Prague when he received a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School in London in 1967. After this, he left to join the Stuttgart Ballett led by John Cranko and in 1975 Kylián became artistic director of the Nederlands Dans Theater in The Hague (NL). In 1978 he put NDT on the international map with Sinfonietta. That same year, he founded Nederlands Dans Theater 2, which was meant to function as a breeding ground for young talent. He also initiated Nederlands Dans Theater 3 in 1991, the company for older dancers from forty till ‘death’. This three dimensional structure was unique in the world of dance. After an extraordinary record of service, with an oeuvre of almost 100 ballets, Kylián handed over the artistic leadership in 1999, and remained associated to the dance company as house choreographer until December 2009. In the last ten years, Kylián has directed four dance films, Car-Men (2006), Between Entrance & Exit (2013), Schwarzfahrer (2014) and the award winning Scalamare (2017).

In the course of his career, Kylián received many international awards including: "Officer of the Orange Order"- Netherlands, "Honorary Doctorate" - Julliard School New York, three "Nijinsky Awards" - Monte Carlo (best choreographer, company and work), "Benoit de la Dance" - Moscow and Berlin, "Honorary Medal" of the President of the Czech Republic, "Commander of the Legion d'honneur" France, and in 2008 he was distinguished with one of the highest royal honours, the Medal of the Order for Arts and Science of the House of Orange given to him by Her Majesty the Queen Beatrix from the Netherlands. Kylián received the Lifetime Achievement Award in the field of dance and theater by the Czech Ministry of Culture in Prague and in this same year the documentary Forgotten Memories received the Czech Television Award. In 2017, Kylián received the prestigious gold penning as honorary citizen of The Hague, the Netherlands. In April 2018, Kylián was nominated to become a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris. This highly prestigious recognition was complimented with the Academy’s decision to change its statutes and add a special seat for ‘Choreography’. Jiří Kylián’s inauguration officially took place in Paris on March 13, 2019.