Dance performances were held in Lithuania as early as during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795) and naturally resulted in Polish-Lithuanian cultural interactions. Initially, performances by the Warsaw opera and ballet company were mounted sporadically at the ducal court in Vilnius. Over time, however, local performances were also put on at aristocratic and bourgeois theatres across the country. In this context, let us recall the legacy of the first Polish professional dancer and ballet master, Maciej Pręczyński, who, after studying in Białystok and pursuing a dancing career on the stages of Venice, Vienna and Warsaw, worked at the Sapieha theatres in Ruzhany and Dzyarechyn at the end of the 18th century, then briefly in Vilnius and finally at the court of Count Semyon Zorich in Shklov for several years.
The current jubilee marks a hundred years since the staging of Léo Delibes' Coppélia in 1925, which is considered the start of the balletic art in Lithuania. During the subsequent period Polish and Lithuanian links were strong. For over 50 years, the Polish ballet for children Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with music by Bogdan Pawłowski and choreography by Witold Borkowski, has enjoyed unflagging popularity in Lithuania. Polish and Lithuanian ballet companies exchanged visits and invited each other's leading dancers to give guest performances.
Krzysztof Pastor's long-standing collaboration with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre has been a special highlight of the mutual ties between Polish and Lithuanian ballet circles. He first appeared in Vilnius as a choreographer in 1997, and from 2011 to 2020 served as the artistic director of the country's national ballet company, while performing the same function in Warsaw. Over his nine-year tenure in Vilnius, Pastor staged Carmen, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Acid City, Tristan, Romeo and Juliet, Bolero, The Nutcracker, The Miraculous Mandarin, and Transfigured Night. Now, he returns with a new production of Moving Rooms prepared especially for the anniversary. (pch)
Pictured: Krzysztof Pastor's Moving Rooms performed by the Polish National Ballet; photo: Ewa Krasucka
