Marika Hanousková to become head of Liberec ballet in August

Marika Hanousková. Source www.saldovo-divadlo.cz.

Marika Hanousková, the current member, director and choreographer of the Liberec ballet company will become its new head this August. She succeeds Alena Pešková who is stepping down from her position on her own request after nine years. The spokesman of the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec, Jakub Kabeš, has announced this in a press release. Pešková will carry on collaborating with the Liberec theatre and direct the autumn premiere of the ballet Sluha dvou pánů (The Servant of Two Masters).  

During the audition for the new director of the ballet company, the jury were selecting from three candidates. Eventually, they supported Marika Hanousková who had been a member of the Liberec ballet company since 2008. “I absolutely agree with the jury’s decision. Marika Hanousková is very talented, and as a person she is extremely hard-working and communicative. As the local patriot, he has strong bonds to Liberec, and she knows our company and our audience, which is a great advantage.,” said Jarmila Levko, director of the three-ensemble theatre.

In Liberec, Hanouskové has mounted a couple of her own works – a horror ballet Jekyll and Hyde, the drama House of Bernarda Alba or Café Reichenberg. “As a choreographer she has also worked in Pilsen, Ústí nad Labem or Japan, and had an opportunity to compare,” noted the director of the F. X. Šalda Theatre. In the North Bohemian Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Ústí nad Labem she staged a ballet based on Andersen’s story of The Snow Queen and a dance comedy The Taming of the Shrew. For the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Pilsen she directed the romantic Little Mermaid. According to the submitted conception, Hanousková wants to build on Alena Pešková’s work and bring original and attractive productions to the Liberec repertory. “She also wants to focus more on young audiences and present productions accompanied by a live orchestra,” said Kabeš.

Pešková sees the artistic level of the Liberec ballet as very high, but she criticises the poor condition of the facilities for the dancers. “We don’t dispose of any rehearsal room inside the big theatre. There is no dance studio and we have nowhere to train when the stage is being set-up,” said Pešková previously to the Czech News Agency. She has more reasons to quit. “I’m not leaving Liberec on bad terms. Nothing is only black or white, there is always blame on both sides. Perhaps, I’ve been too tired lately to constantly fight for the ballet company,” she explained.

Source: ČTK, Opera Plus