Nataša Novotná
Executive director 420PEOPLE, dancer, choreographerBiography
After her graduation at Janáček Conservatory in Ostrava, she joined the junior company of Nederlands Dans Theatre 2 (NDT 2) where she danced under the tuition of Jiří Kylián.
From 2000 to 2002 she was engaged at the Göteborgs Operan Ballet in Sweden (within this engagement she was awarded for her role of Juliet in M. Müller´s Romeo & Juliette).
In 2002 she returned to Netherlands to become a member of Netherlands Dans Theater 1 (NDT 1). During her career she has worked with numerous world-leading choreographers, among them J. Kylián, W. Forsythe, O. Naharin, M. Ek, P. Lightfoot or Crystal Pythe. Dutch critics have twice shortlisted her for the Best Dancer prize for her performance in W. Forsythe´s Duo and J. Inger´s Pneuma. From 2004 to 2005 she was involved in the creative process of the NDT Choreographic Workshop benefit performance.
Since the summer of 2006 she has been working as a free-lancer, mostly as a dancer hosting at dance companies and in choreographies around the world. She co-operates with leading dance theatres and creators worldwide - Tero Saarinen Company in Finland, Copenhagen International Ballet, Korzo Theater, Station Zuid and C-scope in the Netherlands, the soloist of the Italian La Scala Roberto Bolle or the Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara.
Occasionally she works as a pedagogue and dance coach, assisting Jiří Kylián and Václav Kuneš by setting their works for other companies.
The beginning of 2007 saw the foundation of a Prague based company 420PEOPLE: the founding members were Nataša Novotná, Václav Kuneš and Ondřej Kotrč. The very first piece created within the company, Small Hour, lead to Nataša being awarded the Dance Europe best performance prize and the prestigious Thálie Prize 2008. In 2009, at the gala-closing of TANEC PRAHA festival, Nataša was awarded the Dancer of the Year prize. In addition to successful hosting around European countries 420PEOPLE started a residency at the New Stage of the National Theatre in Prague.
In 2007 she also started to create her own works. At first the short work Signs about Signs for Janáček Conservatory. In the season 2010/2011, in co-operation with Korzo theatre, Nataša added to the repertory of 420PEOPLE by creating a piece entitled Sacrebleu. In 2012 she created contemporary version of the Stravinski's Fire Bird for the ballet of the National theatre in Brno and original coproduction Resonances in Walking Distance with the BERG orchestra - in premiere at the New Stage of the National theatre in Prague. The most recent is The Strangler created for the National Moravian-Silesian Theater.