Krzysztof Pastor, photo courtesy of www.teatrwielki.pl
The head of the Polish National Ballet, Krzysztof Pastor has taken on additional duties as artistic director of the ballet at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius
Monika Deptuła from the Press Office of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw: "Impressed by the achievements of the Polish National Ballet, the general director of our sister national theatre, Gintautas Kėvišas, asked the choreographer to breathe new artistic life into the Vilnius ballet company after the departure of Tatjana Sedunova, its artistic director for the past 19 years."
Pastor will not be the first Polish artist among the directors of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre; he follows Jacek Kaspszyk, who was the theatre's music director in 2006-2008, as well as Mariusz Treliński and Boris Kudlička who worked there briefly in 2008 staging Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov".
Krzysztof Pastor has worked with the Lithuanian National Ballet before, producing Shchedrin's "Carmen" (1997), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to music by Mendelssohn (1998), and the world premiere of Mindaugas Urbaitis' new ballet "Acid City" (2002). Now he has agreed to support the Vilnius theatre with his concept for the ballet company's continued development and his own productions. He also plans to develop the two companies' collaboration through co-productions.
We will have to wait till the middle of next year for the first artistic effects of the new arrangement; in the current season the company will follow its earlier repertoire schedule.
Krzysztof Pastor graduated from the National Ballet School of Gdańsk and started his professional career at the Polish Dance Theatre in Poznań and the Grand Theatre in Łódź. In the 80s he began working on foreign scenes; he performed at the French Le Ballet de l'Opera de Lyon. Pastor completed his first choreographic work in 1986 for the International Ballet Gala performance in Łódź. Since then he has worked as a choreographer in the Dutch National Ballet and the Washington Ballet, amongst others. His choreographies have been presented at many international festival, gaining critical and audience recognition.
Pastor is also the resident choreographer of the Dutch National Ballet.
Source: PAP, submitted info.