Petr Koželuh 90

On Sunday, February 8, 2026, dancer Petr Koželuh reached the blessed age of 90. He is inextricably linked with the ensemble of Pavel Šmok and Luboš and Ogun “Balet Praha” (Ballet Pragegue) as a prominent figure in their choreographies.

Dancer Petr Zdeněk Koželuh was born in Prague. He was originally a member of the opera choir and has been a dancer since 1956. He was a student of Věra Untermüllerová, and his further development was influenced primarily by Luboš Ogoun and later, at Ballet Prague, by his encounter with Boris Bregvadze. He danced with the ballet company in České Budějovice (1954–59), was a soloist in Liberec (1959–61), spent two seasons in Plzeň (1961–63), and finally danced in Brno during the 1963/64 season. From there, he joined Luboš Ogoun at the Ballet Prague, where he remained for the entire existence of the company, and in 1970 he left with Pavel Šmok for Basel (1970–73).

After his return, he worked at the Ostrava Ballet (1973–81). He is best known as one of the most distinctive dancers of Ballet Prague, where he shone as a pilot in Ogoun’s Hiroshima and also as his The Miraculous Mandarin, or alongside Marcela Martiníková in Pavel Šmok’s choreographies Intimate Letters or The Drunken Ship and Scheherazade (both under the banner of Ballett Basel). Later, he worked as a guest choreographer in a number of theaters, and after the revolution, he spent two seasons as ballet director in Ostrava (1990–92) and was also ballet master of the Prague Chamber Ballet (1992–98).

He was a professionally versatile dancer with precise and clean lines and extraordinary expressive intensity, which he applied in both classical and modern repertoires. His roles outside of Ballet Prague included Václav in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (České Budějovice, 1958), Petruccio in The Taming of the Shrew by O. Flosman (Liberec, 1961), and the Prince in Sleeping Beauty (Plzeň, 1963). Later, after returning from Basel, where he worked under the direction of Pavel Šmok, he danced roles such as the Prince and Rothbart in Swan Lake (Ostrava, 1977), Quasimodo in Notre Dame de Paris (Ostrava, 1981), and the title role in The Puppeteer (Magdeburg, 1980). In addition to a number of choreographies for musical and drama theater (e.g., The Bartered Bride at Mikkelin Ooppera in Finland, 1987), he staged Petrushka (Ostrava, 1990), Odyssea (Ostrava, 1992), Škatule, škatule… (PKB, 1993), and Proměny času (PKB, 1994). He received the ČLF Award in 1991 for his leadership of the Ostrava ballet. In 2014, he was awarded the Czech Ballet Award for his work as artistic director of the Ostrava ballet (PKB 1993) and Proměny času (PKB 1994). He won the 1991 ČLF Award for his leadership of the Ostrava ballet. In 2014, he received the Thalia Award for his lifetime contribution to ballet.

Congratulations!