News

The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb presented the first step in strengthening the pool for recruiting Croatian dancers – the establishment of a ballet studio that will offer pupils of the ballet school the opportunity to gain knowledge and master the skills that their education could not provide adequately. The goal of founding a studio is to enable pupils of local schools to prepare for their professional path and to offer them everything that is necessary for them to join and become a member of a ballet ensemble in the country or abroad.

Aware of the significance of maintaining the Croatian corps de ballet we have undertaken a series of initiatives such as fellowships of pupils of the ballet school and offered full employment for ten Croatian dancers in our ensemble and we organised a Benefit concert for the ballet school with our sponsor company Mplus. I would like to point out that the foundation of the ballet studio that will be led by our national ballet principal Tomislav Petranović in order to additionally take care of young Croatian dancers and offer them the opportunity to participate in our repertoire is one of the most significant steps, said the general manager of the CNT in Zagreb Iva Hraste Sočo, PhD.

Tomislav Petranović as a dancer with a long international career will personally pass on his experience he gained by working with the greatest ballet pedagogues and choreographers and this will greatly help in better profiling of young dancers on the ballet scene.
The program of the Ballet studio will last a maximum of three years and talented young dancers either during or after their ballet education will be enrolled. The studio will accept a maximum of five students who will experience the dynamics of professional work and perfect themselves working with pedagogues and dancers working in the theatre, said Petranović adding how the work in inadequate conditions of the School for Classical Ballet in Zagreb were additionally worsened by the earthquake and this had impact on the decrease in the number of pupils of the School but also on specific qualitative oscillations in the work of the School.
Vera Kreitmeyer and Vito Križnjak are currently the talented participants of the ballet studio. Vera completed the ballet school last year under the mentorship of Nataša Sedmakov, she was a fellow of the CNT in Zagreb and she danced in corps the ballet of Swan Lake.  
Vito completed his general high school education but is currently in the seventh grade of the ballet school in the class of Spomenka Šparemblek and has until now participated in opera Judita.