Jiří Kylián

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Jiří Kylián
Jiří Kylián (2020)
Born	(1947-03-21) 21 March 1947 (age 74) Prague, Czechoslovakia
Nationality	Czech
Occupation	contemporary dance choreographer
Website	www.jirikylian.com

Jiří Kylián (born 21 March 1947) is a Czech former dancer and contemporary dance choreographer.^[1]

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  [de], 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.^[2] 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".^[2] 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. In 1967 Kylián received a scholarship to study at the Royal Ballet School in London.^[3] Among other artists, Kylián met choreographer John Cranko, 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.^[4] 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 (NDT) in 1976.^[5] 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, as documented by director Hans Hulscher in the documentary, Road to the Stamping Ground.^[6] Aboriginal ceremonial dances are used as blueprints within the work Stamping Ground, which included among its original cast Nacho Duato and .

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).^[7]

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. 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 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.^[8]

Other works[]

Films from 2006 to 2017^[10]

• Car-Men (2006)
• Between entrance and exit (2013)
• Schwarzfahrer (2014)
• Scalamare (2017)^[11]

Awards[]

• 1994 Dance Magazine Award New York^[12]
• 1995 Decoration of the Royal Dutch order of Oranje-Nassau^[13]
• 1997 Golden Medal for Outstanding Merit from President Václav Havel, Prague^[14]
• 2000 Sir Laurence Olivier Award, London^[15]
• 2000 Honorary Doctorate, Music Academy of Prague^[14]
• 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)^[16]
• 2001 Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris^[17]
• 2006 Thalia Award – College Special Award (Czech Republic)^[18]
• 2008 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, Biennale Venezia^[19]
• 2011 Award for exceptional achievement in the field of Dance and Choreography, Czech Ministry of Culture, Prague^[20]
• 2018 Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Member of Institute Français, Académie des Beaux Arts, Paris^[21]

Further reading[]

• Isabelle Lanzová, Dorota Gremlicová, Elvíra Němečková, Roman Vašek: Různé břehy / Choreograf Jiří Kylián mezi Haagem a Prahou, issued by Institut umění – Divadelní ústav (IDU) v Praze (2011), Prague, Czech Rep., ISBN 978-80-7008-267-6
• Raimon Àvila: Jiři Kylián : somniador de danses, Barcelona : Institut del Teatre de la Diputació de Barcelona, Spain, 2003, ISBN 84-7794-960-3
• Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino, Jiří Kylián. Palermo, L'Epos, 2001. ISBN 88-8302-180-0
• Dana Paseková: Jiří Kylián, NAMU 2001, issued by Akademie múzických umění v Praze, Praha, Czech Rep., 2001, ISBN 80-85883-77-5
• Jiří Hlaváč: Jiří Kylián, Doctor Honoris Causa, issued by Akademie múzických umění v Praze, Czech Rep., 15 December 2000, ISBN 80-85883-62-7

Notes[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Jiří Kylián in Czech National Theater Archive
• Jiří Kylián on Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze (Czechoslovak film database)
• Jiří Kylián on Filmová databáze (Film database)
• HSC Online
• Nederlands Dans Theater – Finale from Petite Mort
• Nederlands Dans Theater – First part of Petite Mort on YouTube
• Nederlands Dans Theater – Tar & Feathers on YouTube
• Aspen Santa Fe Ballet – Stamping Ground (Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival 2011)