One of the most performed plays, Shakespeare's Hamlet is staged this time by the company of Košice Ballet as a modern dance theatre production. Hamlet has had few innovative dance adaptations, which makes this a project of outstanding importance. "Hamlet's text is about past correlations and relationships that are extremely hard to present in a ballet. For me, Hamlet is about betrayal, power struggles, the destruction of love, manipulation, and I think these are highly topical subjects for the society we live in today," says director Ondrej Šoth.
"The choreography is designed by Košice Ballet soloist Maksym Sklyar and Cuba's Nelson Reguera Perez. The performance was created as a collective project in which we did our best to inspire each other. I saw Nelson for the first time in Pal Frenák's company and invited him to Košice. Maksym Sklyar has worked as a choreographer in several productions in Košice, he is a talented, inventive and creative artist. That is how the creative team was set up," adds Šoth.
Hamlet involves the entire company of Košice Ballet, and includes pre-recorded audio excerpts from Shakespeare's play performed by Tomáš Maštalír and Táňa Pauhofová of the Slovak National Theatre. The production features music composed mostly by Max Richter for the British film Testament of Youth, as well as compositions by Byron Metcalf, István Sky and Giorgio Maineria.
Choreographer, director, set designer. He worked in Prague as a choreographer for the Chamber Ballet and later for the National Theatre. He returned to Slovakia in 1989, where he choreographed performances for the Slovak National Theatre and the Folk Art Ensemble. He was head of the ballet section of the Town Theatre of Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, taught in Bratislava, Prague, Krakow, Belgium, Paris, China, India and Japan, and worked on dance projects in Munich, Salzburg, Hamburg, Toronto and Lisbon. He was ballet director of State Theatre Košice (2000 – 2010, 2012 –2020) and in-between, he managed the Slovak National Theatre for two years. Since 2020, he has been Managing Director of State Theatre Košice. He has received numerous awards in Slovakia and abroad for his outstanding achievements.
