JÁN NEMEC:
“My goal has always been to educate children towards a love of ballet.”

Ján Nemec—a former soloist of the Czech National Ballet in Prague and the founder of a renowned ballet school—is celebrating an important anniversary in his life. We reminisced with him about the “great old gang,” his colleagues, and his productions, and our words also turned to the students whom he guided towards a professional career.

Jan, it has been many years since we worked together on our first stage. I as a choreographer and you as a great performer of many roles. I’d like to hear about what initially pushed you towards taking part in the art of dance. How do you remember your childhood in Košice?

I was born into the family of a high-school teacher, as the second son out of three children. This gave me the freedom to make my own decisions; even though my father hoped I would be a veterinarian, he supported me in everything. He was a fantastic man; unfortunately he passed early, in 1994. My mother was set in her ways, but I could always push through my choices on how to deal with problems. Today she lives in a senior home in Betliar, back in Slovakia, beset with treacherous Alzheimer’s Disease. Without the home’s attentive medical staff, our family would be unable to care for her. In spite of her illness, she is wonderful, and I love her very much.

How did you first get into the art of dance?

When I was six, my neighbor’s daughter brought me to the dance club at an elementary school of the arts, where I had my first contact with the teaching of human motion. My father also received tickets to cultural events from his employer, including theater tickets. This gave me a chance to see several theater plays—and also ballets. That was probably the trigger that directed me towards dance. As a boy, I admired the dancers’ technique and their physical feats.

What ballet performances did you like the most as a child?

When I was visiting the theater with my father, most likely the biggest experience for me was my first time seeing the ballet Swan Lake, which enraptured me with its beautiful music and magical story. I recall that this performance left a deep impression in me. If only I had suspected that one day I, too…

Swan Lake (J. Nemec and M. Černá). Photo: J. N.

At that time Mr. and Mrs. Halász had the main say in Košice ballet. Andrej Halász was your teacher at the conservatory. How do you recall this time?

I decided to try studying at the Dance department of the conservatory in Košice. It was recommended to me that I first try signing up for dance studies at the State Theater in Košice, led by the Halászes. This was welcome practical experience with dance that I greatly needed.
I decided to try studying at the Dance department of the conservatory in Košice. It was recommended to me that I first try signing up for dance studies at the State Theater in Košice, led by the Halászes. This was welcome practical experience with dance that I greatly needed. In 1974 the Halászes opened the first year of the Košice conservatory’s dance department, and a year later I began my own high-school studies. Was it an accident? Chance? Fate? During our studies, we took part in the dance ensembles of the Košice State Theater’s ballet, and we performed in the ballets La Fille Mal Gardée and The Nutcracker.

What engagement did you enter into after your studies?

After finishing my studies, I remained at my engagement in the Košice State Theater, as a ballet soloist. I was glad to receive an opportunity like this in Košice. Meanwhile the theater enabled me to apply for a ballet internship in the Soviet Union. All this was positive, but my required military service awaited me. In 1980 I began that service in the Vít Nejedlý Army Ensemble, in Prague, over on Pohořelec. Unfortunately my approved application for a ballet internship, in what was then Leningrad, reached me in October—in the army. Obviously I was unable to take advantage of this great life opportunity.
But I regret nothing here, because I spent a wonderful two years in the Army Ensemble, under the leadership of choreographer Jiřina Mlíkovská. That was also precisely where I came to know Zdeňka Mašitová, my soon-to-be wife. She worked here as a dance, tutor, and teacher. Once again fortune and chance! I have to note here that my army service wasn’t full of the usual bullying. On the contrary, there was a very good collective of dancers there, including Míla, Jitka, and Tamara Korn, as well as the inspiring choreographer Jiřina Mlíkovská. We were a young collective that worked on the classics of ballet while also perfecting our skills in the modern techniques. For example, we spent our first Christmas in this ensemble with my colleague Martin Beran in the ballet hall, where we jumped tours en l’air for two hours like wild men.

In 1982 you became a member of the Czech National Ballet, and you were named a soloist in 1985.

It was a very beautiful time in both my personal and professional life. In 1982 I married Zdeňka Mašitová (we spent 36 years together) and began my engagement at the National Theater in Prague. While starting out at the National Theater, I experienced the coexistence of two or three generations of dancers in one ensemble, which was a wonderful lesson for me, and I believe that it enriched both sides of the equation—our older, more experienced colleagues, and naturally us younger dancers too. In this era I got to know such dance personalities as Jaromír Petřík, Naďa Blažíčková, Marta Drottnerová, Miroslava Pešíková, Vlastimil Harapes, Jaroslav Slavický, Hana Vláčilová, Jan Kadlec, Aneta Voleská, and Pavel Ždichynec, and many more. This was truly a wonderful artistic period, under the leadership of the acclaimed Jiří Němeček.

La Dame aux Camélias Photo: J. N. archive

This period was very important for me as well. In 1983 I began serving as the choreographer for the National Ballet and had the opportunity to stage a wide range of ballet premieres.

This was a time full of preparations for re-opening Prague’s historic National Theater building after its reconstruction. The music composers’ association had a competition for works to celebrate the occasion, and new Czech ballet works were thus born. This series of premieres in the historic building—which we initiated with the staging of Páleníček’s Kytice—was produced by Miroslav Kůra and Jiří Blažek, and meanwhile you staged the ballad Poklad.
Riedlbauch’s Macbeth with your own choreography premiered on the New Stage, and they put on Hanuš’s Labyrint in Kůra’s conception, as well as Ladislav Simon’s Jenniferwith your choreography, in the historic National Theater building. Besides these new ballet productions, we also put on a number of classic pieces—like Paquita, Ballet Concert, and tried-and-true productions like Z pohádky do pohádky and Špalíček. 1985 marked the beginning of the period when the National Ballet invited foreign guests to serve as choreographers. They produced some very attractive ballet titles. The head of the Budapest Ballet, László Szeregi, staged a wonderful production of Sylvie; the world-renowned educator Boris Bregvadze from St. Petersburg produced Don Quixote and Sleeping Beauty; the French choreographer Pierre Lacotte produced the classic ballet La Sylphide.
This was an extremely enriching period, and also one of intense labor. Just imagine how I danced as many as sixteen performances a month in this period! I was cooperating with fantastic ballerinas: Pešíková, Drottnerová, Voleská, Černá, Vláčilová, Kůrová, Jandová, Hybešová, Podařilová, Vítková, and more. On top of all that, I had the good fortune to have a “personal trainer” in the person of my wife. One basic, essential condition for good cooperation is to have someone who wants to teach on the one side and someone who wants to learn on the other. The foundation is to be willing to accept everything and be open. Without this approach, my dance career would never have developed, and it would have been very difficult to fill the demanding roles that I had in my repertoire. The stage X-rays you, and every mistake, all apathy, takes its toll, and it would have been punished by the muse of dance.

I personally had a very good experience with you, when you were portraying King Duncan in my choreography for Macbeth .

It was fantastic to work on this production, birthed in a wonderful creative atmosphere, in cooperation with movie director Antonín Moskalyk and with the entire creative team. I believe that your dance theater was rightfully appreciated by the audience.

But you also had other ideas about the development of your own artistic life.

In 1992, during my time spent actively work as a soloist for the National Ballet, I decided to found a private ballet school. I was 32 years old, and I was thinking about which way I would turn after finishing my career as a professional dancer. This period was when the Czech National Theater split up into two entities—the Prague State Opera and the National Theater. All this tended to ease my decision on ending my active career.
By 1997 the time had come definitively, and I concluded that I would end my professional career and begin devoting myself to teaching in full. I had and have no ambitions of taking the place of the conservatory. My goal has always been to educate children towards a love of ballet.

school performance of the Firebird ballet (J. Nemec and R. Haškovcová). Photo: J. N. archive

During your long years of teaching, you surely educated some children who had excellent prerequisites for a career in dance.

Naturally such talents did appear, and I then directed them towards studies in dance conservatories. The talented and diligent pupils who passed through my school and went on to engage in dance professionally include current National Ballet members Jakub Rašek and Lenka Maříková, members of the city of Pilsen’s ballet Lýdie Švojgerová and Michal Douša—the latter of whom has danced abroad—and also Matěj Urban, who is currently at an engagement in Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. I follow their career, and I’m glad that they keep in touch and share important life moments with me. I’m very glad for their successes in life.

How many teachers have you engaged at your school, and who prepares the choreography for the school’s ballet performances?

In the course of founding this ballet during my professional career, I began to accustom myself to this work gradually. After several years, when I quietly started to expand the teaching here, I didn’t even realize that I could manage all of the teaching and organizational activities myself, with the help of a few good friends. And the school works in practically the same way to this day.

How many teachers have you engaged at your school, and who prepares the choreography for the school’s ballet performances?

In the course of founding this ballet during my professional career, I began to accustom myself to this work gradually. After several years, when I quietly started to expand the teaching here, I didn’t even realize that I could manage all of the teaching and organizational activities myself, with the help of a few good friends. And the school works in practically the same way to this day.

It has been two years since your beloved wife Zdeňka left you for eternity. How do you remember your long years spent by the side of this superb teacher and tutor for the National Ballet?

My wife’s unexpected departure in November 2018 was a major breakpoint in my life, an absolute dividing line. On the one part, shock and painful sadness. On the other, a great change, and I had to then organize my own life completely differently. I think that my puppy—a German Spitz—helped me significantly here. Zdeňka and I bought him a few months before her death. Naturally I owe a huge debt to my faithful friends, who supported me and helped in my hardest times and motivated me to further activities, and thus gave me a new goal in my life. Last but not least, I spend time on my ballet school and my students.

While sixty years of life is already a long time, I would like to know what your dreams are. What else would you like to influence, as a major personality of Czech ballet?

I have no ambitions of influencing anything, more just wishes. I wish for every new generation of dancers to experience lovely moments while studying new ballets. For the repertoire of ballet performances to comprise both global ballet and national works. For the dancers to have the opportunity to dance more and practice less, so that they might enjoy more beautiful moments during performances.

How are you celebrating this major birthday? With your colleagues from the National Theater, with graduates of your school, or entirely in private with your mother in Košice?

I’d say it’s a time for a person to recollect while also planning where to next. I’m not the sort to organize big, grandiose events. So I’m celebrating my birthday with my close family along with a few of my closest friends. I’m in contact with certain colleagues whom I sometimes see at shared events, where we reminisce on old times and, of course, comment on the current state of ballet. I believe we were a great gang, and so I’d like to send out my greetings to the rest of us here.

Ján Nemec was born in Košice, Slovakia on August 22nd, 1960. He graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Košice in 1979. During his studies, he was already active at the local theater, and he received an engagement there after finishing his studies. In 1982–1997, he danced with the Czech National Ballet (and as a soloist there from 1985). Nemec was the embodiment of the danseur noble; his stage type was best fit for the technically demanding roles of romantic heroes, such as the Prince in Swan Lake (1978, 1987), the titular role in the Nutcracker(1978, 1985), the Prince in Sleeping Beauty (1990) and Cinderella(1994), Duncan in Macbeth (1984), Colin in La Fille Mal Gardée by L. Hertel (1985, 1994), Albert in Giselle(1985, 1996), Aminta (1985) and Orion (1992) in Sylvie, the Prince in Firebird(1987), Basil in Don Quixote (1987), James in Sylphide(1988), Armand in La Dame aux camélias (1991), a solo part in Návrat do neznámé země (1992), and The Old Wolf Akela in Mauglí(1996). In 1984, he won 2nd place in the national ballet competition in Brno. In 1992 he began teaching with along his wife Zdena Nemcová at his private ballet school.

Source: http://encyklopedie.idu.cz/index.php/Nemec,_J%C3%A1n