Prague, April 4 (CTK) – Pavel Smok, renowned Czech choreographer, modern dance promoter and founder of the Prague Chamber Ballet group, died at the age of 88 on Monday, Johana Mueckova, from the Prague Chamber Ballet, has told CTK.
Smok headed the group for about 20 years.
Smok was born to a family of a Czech construction engineer in the eastern Slovak town of Levoca in former Czechoslovakia in 1927. When the pro-Nazi puppet Slovak state was declared in 1939, the family moved to Prague.
As a teenager, Smok was an amateur actor and folk dancer, he took part in skating contests and starred in ice revues.
He started his ballet career in Prague’s E.F. Burian theatre and later became a soloist in the Military Opera and in the Plzen theatre, west Bohemia.
After some time, he became head of the Usti nad Labem Theatre’s ballet group.
In 1964, he co-founded the Ballet Prague group as “an experimental laboratory of Czechoslovak ballet art,” which became one of the first such Czech groups to succeed internationally.
In 1970, Smok accepted the offer to work for the Basel theatre, where he was ballet director for three years.
On return to Czechoslovakia, ruled by hardline communists, Smok had problem finding a job in his profession. Finally, cooperation was offered to him by Prague’s Rokoko theatre and the Prague Chamber Ballet was established as one of the first promoters of modern dance in Czechoslovakia.
It gradually became the best-known Czech dance group in the world.
Classical ballet representatives called Smok “a heretic” because he breached the firmly set classical rules and refused to yield to the customary routine.
He staged about a hundred of ballets, including 60 in a world premiere. He cooperated with opera and operetta groups, musical as well as drama groups, as a choreographer and also stage director.
