Ladislava Košíková

Biography

Ladislava Košíková was born in 1957 in Uherské Hradiště. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University in Brno (1976-80) and the Theatre Faculty of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU), where she studied dance art (1991-96). She devotes to artistic and pedagogic work in the field of dance. At the present time, she teaches folk dance at JAMU, dance education at the Voice Department of the State Conservatory in Brno, gestics and movement at the Faculty of Multimedia Studies of Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín and dance at the primary art school in Uherské Hradiště. In 1992 she became the choreographer and subsequently artistic director of the ensemble Hradišťan, for which she and the musician Jiří Pavlica created outstanding scenic projects, for example, O Slunovratu (Solstice, 1998), O člověku /a jeho ctnostech a neřestech/ (On Humans / and Their Fortes and Vices, 1999), Zpívání o lásce (Singing about Love, 2002), Skrytá tajemství (Hidden Secrets, 1995), V proměnách času (Changes of Time, 1994) and Biblická zastavení (Biblical Standstills, 1992). They deviate from the traditional folklore conception and assume a looser scenic rendition, where folklore features as a source of inspiration. She has also devoted to choreographic work on various theatre stages. Most noteworthy among her recent works are the collaborations with the stage director J. A. Pitínský on the productions of plays by Preissová – Gazdina roba (The Farmer’s Wench, Theatre of Moravian Slovakia, 2000), Dostoyevsky –The Brothers Karamazov (Theatre of Moravian Slovakia, 2002), Alois and Vilém Mrštík – Maryša (A. Bagár Theatre, Nitra, 2003), the stage director Igor Stránský, for example, on Federico Garcia Lorca’s Yerma (Theatre of Moravian Slovakia, 2002), Shakespeare’s Othello (Theatre of Moravian Slovakia, 2003), Maryša (Theatre of Moravian Slovakia, 2005), the director Ivo Krobot on the staging of Němcová’s Grandmother (South Bohemia Theatre, 2005) and with the director Vlastimil Peška on the production of the musical Malované na skle (Painted on Glass, Radost theatre, 2008). In 2002 with her Dance Studio and Hradišťan dancers she created for Czech Television the dance composition Rok na vsi (A Year in a Village) to Jiří Sternwald’s music. In 2001 she choreographed a production of Janáček’s Jenůfa at Salzburger Festspiele (director: Bob Swaim, conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner). In 2002 she collaborated with Wiener Philharmoniker as a choreographer of the mixed bill comprising works by the Czech composers A. Dvořák and B. Smetana (conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt). In 2004 she created a choreography of Janáček’s ballet Rákós Rákóczy (stage director: Magdalena Švecová) presented within the Janáček’s Brno International Music Festival 2004; in 2006, with Jaroslav Krček and Musica Bohemica, the musical-dance fresco Žákovské vigílie (Pupils’ Vigils); in 2007 the choreography for Bohuslav Martinů’s Bouquet of Flowers at the Smetana’s Litomyšl International Opera Festival (in collaboration with the Zlín Philharmonic Orchestra, stage director: Alena Vaňáková, conductor: Roman Válek). Ladislava draws inspiration for her choreographies from folk dance (which she has a deep knowledge of), scenic dance and a wide scale of dance techniques. In her conception, folk dance is expressed by the contemporary dance language, yet at the same time with a firm linkage to the philosophy and ethics of folk culture. Update: March 2008