This year, on November 2. we celebrate World Ballet Day! The organizers, The Royal Ballet and The Australian Ballet announced that will be an impressive number of events streamed online, including shows, rehearsals, workshops, interviews with great choreographers and dancers.
World Ballet Day returns for its ninth year, giving you an insider’s view into dance companies around the globe. See morning class and rehearsals, get a sneak peek of upcoming performances and see ballet’s biggest stars at work. Fill your day with dance, streamed for free across six continents.
Also read
World Ballet Day 2022 with Marta Voinea Čavrak, Soloist with Croatian National Theatre in Rijeka
World Ballet Day 2022! Belma Čečo Bakrač, ballet choreographer of National theatre Sarajevo
Happy World Ballet Day with Gabriela Teglaši-Jojkic, choreographer, ballet pedagogue and president of the Association of Ballet Artists of Vojvodina
Dear ballerinas,
I am writing to you from Novi Sad, Vojvodina region, Republic of Serbia, the city where one of the oldest theaters in the Balkans is located, the Serbian National Theatre, founded in 1861. However, the magic of dance was first introduced to me by the Ballet High School in Novi Sad, which has existed since 1948. Later, I was accepted into the TN ballet ensemble. Novi Sad, which was founded by Marina Olenjina in 1950.
I am proud to emphasize this detail, because the dance includes a diverse repertoire, emphasizing both classical and contemporary expression, being a privilege that does not happen to everyone who steps into the world of ballet. The connection with numerous choreographers, pedagogues and dancers from all over the world has influenced the creation of some noteworthy soloists, remembered throughout time.
Entire generations of domestic ballerinas, absorbing knowledge from renowned experts and ballet masters, have visibly progressed and remained loyal to the Mother House. There are also those who spread the fame of the city to the world and became stars of the famous opera and ballet theaters. And then, in the 1990s, there was the collapse of a large country, R.S.F Yugoslavia, where ten professional ballet ensembles excelled in six republics. We fought to have our own separate states, which we started fleeing in droves not long after. That inexplicable paradox has impoverished many theaters, destroying the beauty of giving. Slowly, these ties are renewed today, while the art of ballet, despite all the vicissitudes, resists the challenges and continues without interruption.
The Serbian National Theater Ballet celebrates its Foundation Day every year on March 8. However, every year on World Dance Day, April 29, an international message from renowned ballet artists circulates around the world and is read before the performance that takes place on that occasion. On the Serbian National Theater Day, March 28, flowers are placed on the marble monument of the ballerina Marina Olenjina, the founder of the Novi Sad Ballet.
On World Ballet Day, November 2, I congratulate this great holiday for all ballet lovers with this message: “Ballet is still a fairy tale. Magic! Washing the soul. A world of ecstasy. In the end, the power of the beauty of the game, the grace of the stage and the applause wash away the weight of the profession. An infection called theater is good if it turns into an epidemic. Theater sickness is not dangerous, and the consequences it leaves are only long-lasting. And if man’s mission is to fulfill his life by doing what he loves, then ballet is the right way, and the explanation of this or that world of human happiness still lies in the choice of all of us, waiting for us to discover it ourselves. This is my concept of happiness!”, Gabriela Teglaši-Jojkic, choreographer, ballet pedagogue and president of the Association of Ballet Artists of Vojvodina
Gabriela Teglaši-Jojkic, choreographer, former director of the Serbian National Theater Ballet, ballet master and choreographer
Gabriela Teglasi (Velimirović) Jojkić was first ballerina with the Serbian National Theater Ballet, director of the Serbian National Theater Ballet, pedagogue in the theater and in ballet schools in the country and abroad, ballet master and choreographer, author of numerous ballet texts and reviews, the novel “Ballet is edible ?”, “Letters from Portugal”, monographs “Milan Lazić’s Art of Dance”, “Zoltan Gajdoš’s Ballet Rehearsal”. She is the initiator of the establishment of two ballet schools and a monument to the ballerina Marina Olenjina, president of the Association of Artists of Ballet from Vojvodina
The Association of Ballet Artists of Vojvodina is a free association of ballet artists and all admirers of the art of ballet, whose main goal is the development of the free and creative personality of ballet artists and the improvement of stage artistic-musical activity in the field of culture. This professional association has been operating continuously since 2006 and is on the list of representative associations in the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina. The Association of Ballet Artists of Vojvodina cooperates with related Associations, as well as with numerous cultural institutions in the country and abroad.
In 2007, the Association of Ballet Artists of Vojvodina established the Marina Olenjin Professional Award, which is awarded for outstanding professional artistic creativity. It consists of a plaque and a statuette cast in bronze. So far, nine “Ballet Oscars” have been awarded. The three-year project (from 2008 to 2011) consisted of the initiative to create a life-size marble monument dedicated to Marina Olenjina, the founder of the Ballet at the Serbian National Theatre.
The Association of Ballet Artists from Vojvodina is actively involved in all forms of promoting the art of ballet, as well as in the programs of the European Capital of Culture in 2022. It publishes monographs and books for recognized artists, provides the necessary support to projects and participates in numerous seminars, forums and media appearances .
