Michaela Černá

Biography

Ballet master of the National Theatre Ballet Michaela Černá was born in Brno. In 1977 she graduated from the Dance Department of the State Conservatory in Prague and at the same time took up a one-year residency at the Academic Choreography Institute in Leningrad. She was subsequently engaged for two years as a ballet soloist at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. There she danced Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, Giselle and Carmen in the ballets of the same names, the Good Fairy in Cinderella, Zarema in The Fountain of Bakhchisaray and other roles. In the 1979–80 season she joined the National Theatre Ballet in Prague as a soloist. She created a number of roles not only of the classical, but also the modern repertoire. She rendered both dramatic and comic characters: Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, Myrtha in Giselle, Zarema in The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, the Lady of the Copper Mountain in The Stone Flower, Eva in Eternal Songs, Giullietta in Tales of Hoffmann, the Mother in The Treasure (The Bouquet), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Francesca in Labyrinth, Diana in Sylvia, Jennifer and the Fire-Bird in the ballets of the same name, Kitri in Don Quixote, the Sylph in La Sylphide, the Girl in Carmina Burana, Taglioni in Grand pas de quatre, the Lilac Fairy and the Queen in Sleeping Beauty, Cholera in Tchaikovsky, the Wicked Sister and the Stepmother in Cinderella, the First Dancer and the Ballet Master in Some Like It…, the Mother in The Child and Magic. She also danced classical pas de deux in the ballets Paquita, Le Corsaire, Esmeralda, La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, etc. Furthermore, Michaela Černá enacted one of the lead roles in the full-length picture The Children of Theatre Street (US-Soviet co-production), which originated under the patronage of Monaco’s Princess Grace. She has taken part in a host of international and national competitions: Prague 1975 (1st prize in the junior category), Bratislava 1977 (2nd prize in the senior category), Varna 1974 (4th place in the junior category), Lausanne 1976 (Best Female European Prize with a month-long scholarship stay at the Briansky Saratoga Ballet Center and the prize with a medal for the best classical variation), Tokyo 1978 (medal and 12th prize), Jackson 1980 (diploma). She has participated in a host of international festivals, tours abroad and guest performances (Cuba, the USA, Australia, Great Britain, France, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Finland, Switzerland). Since 1996 she has been a ballet master and pedagogue at Prague’s National Theatre Ballet. In parallel, she has continued performing in the roles of queens and mothers. In recent years, she has also worked as an assistant choreographer. She has collaborated with a number of leading creators including J. Kylián, Y. Grigorovich, L. Stein, L. Vaculík, C. Hampson, C. Janssen, P. Zuska and many others. In 2004 Michaela Černá created the choreographies The Noonday Witch (music: A. Dvořák) and Carmen (music: R. Shchedrin and G. Bizet) for the Ryedale Festival in England.