Press release: The Pavel Šmok Institute in Braník is Opening a New Video Library with a Study Room Today and Launching the Ballet Prague Heritage Online Database.

As of today, the Pavel Šmok Institute in the Dance Art Centre in Braník has opened a newly built video library with a study room, where visitors can access fully digitized materials for studying the choreography of Pavel Šmok, Luboš Ogoun, and other personalities. The premises offer a reference study room with an extensive archive of printed materials, photographs, and a video collection of choreographies from the era of Studio Ballet Prague and, above all, the Prague Chamber Ballet.

Today, the Pavel Šmok Institute also launched the Ballet Prague Heritage website. In the new, modern database, which will gradually expand, interested parties can currently find documentation on the repertoire of the Ballet Prague era (1964–1969). Choreographies created during Pavel Šmok’s time in Basel and the repertoire of the Prague Chamber Ballet will be added in the near future.

“We have processed most of the documentation from the period of the Ballet Prague ensemble, and a selection of it can also be found on the new Ballet Prague Heritage website. We are focusing on the 1960s, so the materials are dominated by photographs and printed matter. We are still cataloguing and classifying them: it is a long-term project and we still have many years of work ahead of us before we process the heritage of both companies,” says Ladislava Dunovská Jandová, director of the Pavel Šmok Institute and initiator of the entire project.

“The online database now contains an overview of the work of the Ballet Prague ensemble (which was initially called Studio Ballet Prague), i.e. the repertoire from 1964–1969: information about individual choreographies, photo galleries, production teams, and a database of dancers,” explains Lucie Kocourková, dance historian and publicist, coordinator of activities at the Pavel Šmok Institute. “The website is user-friendly and has a modern and tasteful graphic design. The database will continue to grow, and our goal is to gradually cover the repertoire of the Prague Chamber Ballet as well. This will also include video documentation, which is understandably rare from the 1960s.”

The Pavel Šmok Institute continues to organize public lectures with eyewitnesses and members of the Ballet Prague and the Prague Chamber Ballet companies as part of the Wandering Through Dance History series. On Wednesday, November 2, 2022, at 5 p.m., a discussion with Kateřina and Jaroslav Slavický on the topic of “Traces of Choreographer Pavel Šmok in Basel” will take place in the small hall of the Municipal Library in Prague. Other discussions, which will take place at the House of Dance Art, will be attended by dance critic Jana Hošková, among others.

The Pavel Šmok Institute is currently working on a new monograph, “Pavel Šmok: Choreographer with the Soul of a Poet”, written by Lucie Kocourková. The publication, which focuses on Pavel Šmok’s choreographic work and its development from his earliest creative attempts, will be officially launched just before Christmas. The book will be published as part of the series Studio Balet Praha a Pražský komorní balet – historie a osobnosti (Ballet Prague Studio and Prague Chamber Ballet – History and Personalities).

“For the first time, for example, we take a really detailed look at Šmok’s early work in Ústí nad Labem and Ostrava, where he made his name before founding Ballet Prague. Some may think that I devote too much space to this period, but as a historian, I must point out that it is not only the peak (and usually carefully analyzed and documented) works of each artist that are important, but it is equally interesting to discover and follow their artistic maturation,” explains the author of the monograph, Lucie Kocourková. “Thanks to reviews and critiques, we can also track how the view of ballet art has changed over the years, so the book will again contain many contemporary texts. Among the sources, we are working for the first time with a previously unpublished summary of Šmok’s life milestones, which was recorded according to his own account in 1989. Not only this manuscript, but also new rare photographs from Pavel Šmok’s youth were lent to us by his son Martin Šmok, to whom we owe a great deal of thanks for supporting our work.”

The Ballet Prague Heritage database was created in collaboration with TDT Studio.

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Media contact:

Mgr. Johana Mravcová

tel: +420 605 751 290

e-mail: mravcova@balet-praha.cz