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Petr Zuska
Petr Zuska (born 3 August 1968) is a Czech choreographer, stage director, dancer, pedagogue.

Life
Petr Zuska was born in 1968 in Frýdek-Místek, Czechoslovakia, into a family of a lawyer and former mayor of Prague Zdenek, and a physician Dana. He studied choreography and stage direction at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under the guidance of Prof. Ctibor Turba, graduating in 1994. He lives in Prague with his wife and two children.

Work
Zuska launched his professional path at the Ladislav Fialka Pantomime at the Theatre on the Balustrade in Prague (1987-89). A significant phase in his dance career was his engagement at the Prague Chamber Ballet (Pražský komorní balet) (1989–1992 soloist; later a guest artist). Between 1992 and 1998, he was a soloist with the Czech National Ballet in Prague. In 1998 he was engaged as a dancer at the Munich Ballet Bayerisches Staatsballett, and in 1999 he joined the ballet company of the Augsburg Theatre Staatstheater Augsburg. In 2000 he was named a soloist of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal. Throughout his career as a dancer, Petr Zuska performed in classical ballets, yet he primarily appeared in works by renowned contemporary Czech creators, including Jiří Kylián, Pavel Šmok and Libor Vaculík, as well as foreign choreographers, such as Alvin Ailey, Gerhard Bohner, Robert North, Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, Christopher Bruce, Ohad Naharin, Nacho Duato and Itzik Galili. As a professional dancer, Petr Zuska performed on stages worldwide. In the 1990s, he was also a permanent guest of the National Theatre in Brno and the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava.

During his fifteen-year tenure as the Chief of Ballet of the The Czech National Ballet Balet Národní divadlo in Prague (2002 - 2017), Zuska transformed the corps de ballet into a first-class international ensemble. Under Zuska’s leadership, the Czech National Ballet performed on 36 prominent stages all over the world, including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Washington D. C., Houston, Athens, Bonn, Budapest, Tallinn, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris and Tel Aviv. Also, in his role he continuously fought for an increase of low paychecks of the ballet dancers dancing with the ballet of the state-owned Národní divadlo in Prague.

A prominent Czech choreographer, Petr Zuska belongs to extraordinary European-format creators. He has worked with world-renowned ballet companies, including the Hamburg Ballett, Ballett Augsburg Staatstheater Augsburg, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Latvian National Opera in Riga, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Ballett Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the West Australian Ballet in Perth, the Finnish National Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the Boston Ballet.

In his choreographic works, he applies a broad scale of creative vocabulary, ranging from the high bel canto of the neo-classical style through an innovative approach to modern creation. His productions are sophisticated, full-blooded, reflecting the world of symbols and archetypes, spiritual themes, as well as moral principles. He belongs to the precious few choreographers capable of imbuing his works with humor, wit and hyperbole.