Jiri Kylian

Jiří Kylián was born in Prague in 1947 and began ballet studies at nine. He entered the Prague Conservatory in 1962, where his education extended beyond classical ballet to modern dance and folk forms. A 1967 scholarship took him to the Royal Ballet School in London, exposing him to a wider Western European repertory and professional network.

In 1968, amid the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Kylián left Prague and joined Stuttgart Ballet under John Cranko. He danced with the company and began making work there, with *Paradox* marking his choreographic debut. The Stuttgart years placed him inside a company culture known for encouraging dancer-choreographers and gave him practical experience in both performance and creation.

Kylián first created for Nederlands Dans Theater as a guest. After three ballets for the company, he became artistic director in 1975. His 1978 *Sinfonietta*, set to Leoš Janáček, brought NDT major international recognition. That same year, with managing director Carel Birnie, he founded NDT II to develop younger dancers and provide a bridge into the main company.

His repertory expanded across lyrical, abstract, comic, and darker theatrical registers. In 1991 he established NDT III for dancers over forty and premiered *Petite Mort* at the Salzburg Festival with NDT I. Set to slow movements from Mozart piano concertos and incorporating foils and mobile black dresses, *Petite Mort* became one of his most widely staged works.

Kylián handed NDT's artistic leadership to a new generation in 1999 and remained house choreographer through December 2009. He also extended his practice into film, collaborating with director Boris Paval Conen on *CAR-MEN* and later making screen works including *Between Entrance & Exit*, *East Shadow*, *Schwarzfahrer*, and *Scalamare*.

Major honors have recognized both his choreography and his institutional influence. They include Benois de la Danse distinctions, appointment as an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau, France's Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, and the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. In 2019 he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in a newly created choreography section; in 2024 the Czech Republic awarded him the Order of the White Lion.