Fruitful Talk with Jiří Bubeníček

02. 02. 2025

The talk with our guest, the famous dancer and choreographer Jiří Bubeníček, took place on 28 January at the packed Small Hall of the Prague Municipal Library. The interview and following discussion took an hour and a half and captivated the audience to the point it was hard to say goodbye. Professor Helena Kazárová was the second guest, who also joined Lucie Kocourková as a co-host. She is well known for her work as a historian at the HAMU dance department, but she also taught Jiří and his brother Otto ballet history when they studied at the dance conservatory.

They thus commenced the talk by sharing memories of their student years and the extraordinary grit and tenacity with which both brothers pursued their dream profession. We recalled various milestones in Jiří’s career and the strikingly different conditions that allowed the brothers’ breakthrough abroad. We also talked about his choreographic work and the developments in dance techniques, the demands placed on young artists today – we aimed the debate on the young members of the audience, ranking from amongst the conservatory students. Apart from the oft funny moments, their memories offered lessons to be learnt and motivation.

Hopefully, we will present also other outstanding and inspiring figures of contemporary dance in the future. Young dance students as well as the general public clearly appreciate events of this kind. The atmosphere at the event is captured in our photo gallery (photo Zuzana Havlínová):