Jury

Krzysztof Pastor

Karol Urbański

Andrzej Morawiec

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KRZYSZTOF PASTOR

Choreographer, director of the Polish National Ballet and from 2011-2020 an artistic director of the Lithuanian National Ballet. He was born in Gdańsk, where he also began his dancing training. He was a soloist with Conrad Drzewiecki's Polish Dance Theatre in Poznań, Teatr Wielki in Łódź and Le Ballet de l'Opéra of Lyon. In 1985, he joined the Dutch National Ballet (Het Nationale Ballet), where he soon began his choreographic work. Retiring from his stage career from 1997-1999, he was a choreographer with Washington Ballet. Then he continued his choreographic carrier in Amsterdam, where he took the position of the resident choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet in 2003-2017, where he created most of his original ballets. Krzysztof Pastor created nearly 70 various choreographies also with companies in Australia (The Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet), Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain (Scottish Ballet), Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden (Royal Swedish Ballet), Turkey and United States (Washington Ballet and Joffrey Ballet).

In 2009 Pastor accepted Waldemar Dąbrowski's invitation to take the position of the director of ballet at Warsaw Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera, which soon gained artistic autonomy and became elevated to the status of Polish National Ballet. Under his directorship, the company began the new period of dynamic development by reinforcing its artistic asset and enriching its repertoire with the world finest ballet masterpieces and new works by polish choreographers. In Warsaw, he staged a few of his earlier productions: Tristan, Kurt Weill, In Light and Shadow, Moving Rooms, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Bolero and Do Not Go Gentle.., but also new choreographies: And the Rain Will Pass…, Adagio&Scherzo, Casanova in Warsaw, his version of Swan Lake and Chopin's Concerto in F minor.

Pastor received choreographic awards at the Helsinki International Ballet Competition and from Dutch Foundation Dansersfonds'79, but also received special prizes from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Polish Theatre Artists Union and Polish Society of Authors and Composers and was awarded "Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis" Gold Medal (2011), the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2015) and Honorary Golden Star from Lithuanian Ministry of Culture (2016) and Order for Merits to Lithuania (2021). In 2017, he was awarded the title of an “Outstanding Pole” from Polish Promotional Emblem Foundation “Teraz Polska”. In 2019 his Dracula, created for West Australian Ballet won the Performing Arts WA Dance Award for Best New Work.

KAROL URBAŃSKI

He graduated from the State Ballet School in Lodz (1984), as well as from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw (2001, master's thesis Dance as a subject of philosophy) and postgraduate studies in management of cultural institutions at the Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw.

While still studying, he joined the Grand Theater in Łódź, where he worked as a dancer and soloist for nine years, with a two-year break, during which he did his military service in the Central Artistic Ensemble of the People's Army of Poland (now: the Representative Artistic Ensemble of the Polish Army). In 1991, he moved to Warsaw and joined the ballet of the Grand Theater - National Opera. In 1995, he went to Norway for two years, where he danced with the Norwegian National Ballet. Upon his return, he again worked as a soloist with the National Opera ballet. In 2008, he completed an internship at London's contemporary dance center "The Place." After his career as a dancer ended, from 2010-2012, he worked at the Grand Theater - National Opera as a specialist for the reorientation of dancers. In turn, from 2012 to 2019, he was ballet director at the Castle Opera in Szczecin.

His repertoire included the following roles: Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, Prince Albert in Giselle, the Mouse King in The Nutcracker, Mother Simone in The Ill-guarded Daughter, the Sage in The Rite of Spring (chor. Emil Wesolowski), the Angel of Death in The Four Last Songs (chor. Rudi van Danzing), Stefano in The Tempest (chor. Glen Tetley), Petit Mort (chor. Jiří Kylián), Carmen (chor. Mats Ek), Something as if (chor. Mats Ek), Stabat Mater (chor. Ewa Wycichowska).

While still in Oslo, he made his first choreographic attempts, which he continued after returning to Poland. As a choreographer, his credits include the following performances: Aria from the Goldberg Variations (mus. Jan Sebastian Bach) - Oslo 1996, Passacalia (mus. Jan Sebastian Bach) - Gdańsk 1998, Postcards from Life (mus. Tom Waits) - Gdańsk 1998, Death and the Maiden (mus. Franz Schubert) - Warsaw 1998, Only Once in a Lifetime (with Elwira Piorun) - Warsaw 2001, La spectre de la rose (mus. Hector Berlioz), Pas d'un (mus. Georg Friedrich Händel), Farewell (mus. Giuseppe Verdi). In addition, he choreographed the children's musical Cats, or Cat's Miauzical, which premiered at the Guliwer Theater in Warsaw, Verdi's Requiem, commemorating the second anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center, and Requiem for Hollow Men at the TW - ON Chamber Stage. In 2011, for the ballet company of Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, he produced a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Since the late 1980s, he has also been active in teaching. He taught classical and contemporary dance at ballet schools in Łódź and Warsaw. As a teacher of classical and contemporary dance, he has worked with many professional and non-professional groups in Poland and abroad, conducting workshops and projects.

He has also participated in film and television productions. He appeared in Krzysztof Zanussi's films Suplement and Heart on a Hand, as well as Television Theater productions: Casting (directed by Krzysztof Zanussi) and The Game of Hits and Loves (directed by Gustaw Holoubek).

He is a manager with several years of experience in running cultural institutions and artistic and educational projects. In 2007, with Zbigniew Czapski, he founded the "Contemporary Dance Center" Foundation. He co-managed it until 2012.

In 2001 he was a scholarship recipient of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In 2017 he received the bronze medal "Meritorious for Culture - Gloria Artis".

Since 2022, Deputy Director, heading the Department of Dance at the National Institute of Music and Dance.