Patryk Walczak trained at the Roman Turczynowicz Ballet School in Warsaw, from which he graduated in 2010 with the title of Poland's Best Ballet School Graduate. Straight from school he joined the company of the Polish National Ballet and was subsequently promoted to coryphée (2012), solist (2014), and first soloist (2018). After a series of smaller roles, in 2013 he notched up a spectacular success as Puck in John Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Other roles ranking among his greatest stage achievemens include The Jester in Frederick Ashton's Cinderella, Lucentio in John Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew, Ariel in Krzysztof Pastor's The Tempest, Poet in Mikhail Fokine's Chopiniana, and Armand Duval in Neumeier's The Lady of the Camellias, which earned him the nomination for this year's Kiepura Award. Walczak has also perfomed Tsarevich Nicky in Pastor's Swan Lake, Prince Désiré in Yury Grigorovich staging of Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty, and Prince in Toer van Schayk and Wayne Eagling's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, but can be seen in many other roles of the PBN's current repertoire.
Walczak is yet another PNB first soloist to have been presented with the Kiepura Award for Best Classical Dancer. He was preceded by Vladimir Yaroshenko (2014 and 2017), Maksim Woitiul (2015 and 2016), Dawid Trzensimiech (2018) in the male category and Yuka Ebihara (2014 and 2017), Aleksandra Liashenko (2015), and Mai Kageyama (2016) in the female category. (pch)
Pictured: Patryk Walczak as Armand Duval in John Neumeier's The Lady of the Camellias. Photo by Ewa Krasucka
