For her role of Blanche DuBois in this production she even received the Thalia Award 2024 in the field of Ballet, Dance and Movement Theatre. The expert jury appreciated her rich interpretive experience, which she incorporated „into the suggestive conception of the psychologically unstable Blanche. It is a performance with a huge range of shades. We sense the disparate jumble that goes on in her head, gnawing away at the remnants of her mental health. In the end, it's as if she's trying to shake all the mind-numbing confusion out of her head. The omnipresent technical certainty is intertwined in her acting with a considerable amount of inertia.“ I approached Klára to reveal the process of creating this challenging character. But we also touched on her life story, in which she voluntarily left a stable job at the Czech National Ballet and ventured into the uncertain waters of the independent scene. 

Klára, you are the winner of Thalia 2024. How does it feel?
It was a surprise for me. I didn't want to have any expectations. I know myself and I know I would be disappointed, so I took the nomination as a kind of icing on the cake. For me, the role of Blanche DuBois, or rather the opportunity to dance in Arthur Pita's choreography, is already so rewarding that it is enough to satisfy me.

The production A Streetcar Named Desire is very well received by the general public. What does it mean to you personally? Is it different from other choreographies you have danced in?
This production in particular is not just about dancing, it's real dance theatre. It's about bringing multiple disciplines together, which I've always enjoyed. Plus, we're not playing at anything, but instead portraying reality - drinking and smoking. We all have to start smoking before we perform, to get used to it, even our colleagues who don't smoke at all.
At the same time, the preparation itself was very honest, Arthur Pita wanted everyone to know their role to the smallest detail. In the first rehearsals we just broke down the characters, in the next we had a swing lesson, we dressed up in period clothes and accessories... We really tuned in and lived in the 1930s and 1940s. 
And for example, in the opening scene with the glasses, I'm given exactly where to put the glass. I couldn't just put it down wherever I felt like at the time, but it had to be in one specific place. In the same way, we worked out how to take the cigarettes in our hands, how to put them away, in short, we really worked out every detail.

And what makes the performance special for you on a personal level?
I'm sure it's in the character of Blanche herself. She's such a typical woman who knows she's beautiful, she's confident and she's good with men. I was worried about that because I'm not like that in reality. But working with Arthur made me more fragile and softer, and I started to feel feminine, but in a good way. It was as if he had discovered a new shade of femininity in me that I hadn't known before.
The rehearsal process was extremely challenging. I had to learn to switch between different positions with the snap of a finger. For example, I had to go from the emaciated Blanche, the smoking prostitute and half-alcoholic, to the sixteen-year-old, naive and innocent Blanche who falls in love and, when she learns that her husband has shot himself, experiences intense personal trauma. These are psychologically challenging moments, which of course also affect me, Klára Jelínková. I have to be able to pull myself together and recover quickly in order to be able to go on.

Do you know how to protect yourself from this storm of emotions, to leave the role on the stage or in the theatre and close the door behind it?
I experience something extreme on stage, which in itself acts as a raised finger. But of course I can't take it home, I'd go crazy.

Since its inception, the original play has continually returned in various forms, be it theatre, film or dance. For example, in John Neumeier's version, which was also performed by the Czech National Ballet. Why do you think this play is still relevant?
Everything that is happening in the play is still happening today. For example, the whole existential question of where a person is in life, what awaits him. However, Blanche is brought up in high society, then everyone around her dies and she is left all alone. And that loneliness completely overwhelms her, she moves to the Flamingo Hotel, where she sells her body to survive. There's a tremendous insecurity in her character, and that happens to everybody, although perhaps in other forms that may not be so extreme.

When I think of myself, specifically the moment when I left the Czech National Ballet and I had no idea what was going to happen. I was trying to reassure myself that something would come up and I wouldn't be out of a job. But at that moment you just don't have any security, you don't have a contract, you don't have a big institution behind you. And that's exactly what Blanche is experiencing, only in a different form.
Moreover, A Streetcar Named Desire is also topical because of the poignancy of the emotions it portrays. People experience similar states of mind today and every day, they want and need to see that they are not alone in this. The possibility of getting lost in that avalanche of emotions, in which they find themselves again and identify with the situation... And the fact that someone leaves the theatre affected is, in my opinion, the essence of theatre.

How did you prepare for the role of Blanche?
We were given the task of finding out as much information about the characters as possible. We had to understand what was going on inside them. At first, I almost hated Blanche. I used to think how awful she was. But the more I got inside her, the more I started to understand her. Suddenly I felt sorry for her and I even started to like her.
There was a moment during rehearsal where Arthur tried to get me to feel alone, that everyone hated me. This went on for about half an hour with the whole group pushing me away. I was like, I'm fine, I'm strong, I can do this. But the tension started to build up, Arthur was giving instructions that under no circumstances was I to get into the group. The intensity grew, they pushed me to the floor, they even closed the door of the hall so I couldn't be in the same room with them... I wouldn't have believed it myself, but after half an hour I started crying, I couldn't hold it together. It was an incredibly powerful experience, but it helped me a lot because I lived through the situation. I was surprised that even a seemingly staged event can become a lived reality after a while. Suddenly I didn't know where I belonged, as if I didn't even have a place in the world.

Maybe this is one of the reasons why the play is still relevant. Humans are social creatures, and the feeling of belonging to a group is extremely important.
I'm sure it is. The group is very important to me as well, and at the same time, with the transition to freelancing that I mentioned earlier, it's been a very hot topic for me as well.

Have you seen the film versions of A Streetcar Named Desire?
Yes, I have. And I also performed in the Neumeier’s dance version, because it was on the programme during my last season at the Czech National Ballet. But Arthur didn't know that. He had prepared themes, and he'd had this particular production in his head for years. When he told us his intention, we just stared in disbelief.
But I'm glad Arthur changed the ending. In the play, Stanley rapes Blanche and Stella doesn't believe her. She also convinces herself that he would never do it. Only Blanche bears the blame, goes insane and ends up in a mental institution, while Stella and Stanley go on living happily and undisturbed. In Arthur's version, Stella leaves Stanley and hides their child from him as well. Blanche still ends up in a mental institution, but Stanley remains abandoned. I sense some satisfaction in that. I'm glad it's not just Blanche who's gonna pay for everything.

How was the collaboration with Arthur Pita?
The audition itself was very intense, lasting several days. Pita carefully chose from eight dancers. He always outlined a situation and we had to play it, so he paid a lot of attention to acting skills.
He also associated Blanche with high society, so that the dancer had to look like a ballerina - with her pointed feet and graceful movements. I found it comical, because in ballet I was always viewed as a modernist and among contemporary dancers as a ballerina. But I fit Arthur’s type. He built Blanche in such a way that at the beginning the choreography is very much inspired by classical dance technique and gradually moves into contemporary dance.
I've always been used to the tension building up as the premiere approaches. But Arthur, on the other hand, was always calm. Even on opening day, when the tuned piano fell to the floor and we just waited for a scream, disillusionment or outburst of emotion. But he immediately began to address where to get this type of piano and whether it would be possible to have it delivered.
Even in the studio he was calm, which was a shock to me, because I don't know such an approach from Czech theatres. Suddenly I experienced that it is possible to work in peace and that performances are not created only under pressure, as we were constantly told in the National Theatre. In short, he had confidence in us. I even feel that Arthur believed in me more than I believed in myself. I often shared with him that I wasn't sure of the situation in which I was supposed to perform, but he always convinced me that I was Blanche.
He said exactly what should happen and how it should happen, but he left the search for movement material up to us and then fixed it, finishing it. The funny thing is that he himself had a kind of miniature theatre set in which he played out for us what the whole performance should look like.

He had a clear vision.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! He knew exactly how he envisioned the production. That's why I'm so sorry I didn't mention his name at all during my thank-you speech at the Thalia wawrd ceremony. If he hadn't chosen me, if he hadn't put his trust in me, I would never have won the Thalia. It's also to his credit.

You play in block. You said yourself it's a very difficult production. How are you handling it?
I felt it very intensely just now, because I was used to the pauses between shows at the Czech National Ballet. But even block performing has its positives. Especially in movement training, because it doesn't happen that you rehearse Swan Lake on pointe during the day and in the evening you dance Ohad Naharin or Jiří Kylián. In this case, the body switches from one discipline to another, as if you were training for a hundred metres and a marathon at the same time.
But it's true that I would need at least one day off with Tram. I usually cry on stage for the first few days until I get used to it. In January, I have Blanche six times in a row. We were already joking that it would be nice to go straight to Bohnice mental institution afterwards.
I'm regularly sick afterwards. The physical and emotional strain keeps me healthy, but as soon as I relax, it all comes out. Fortunately, now it's just a cold.

“Just” a cold?
For me, it's "just" a cold because I'm used to much more pain.

It's unbelievable how dancers have a tolerance threshold shifted.
I'm sure we do. It would help to get two days of sleep, but there's no room for that. I always get carried away because I give it my all. On the other hand, I can't do it any other way.

 

Klára Jelínková
Graduate of the Dance Conservatory of the Capital City of Prague and the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (major in pedagogy). After graduation she joined the Czech National Ballet, where she has been a demi-soloist since 2008. She has danced in classical ballets (Georges Balanchine, John Neumeier, Youri Vámos, Javier Torres, Johan Kobborg, Yuri Grigorovich) and modern repertoire (Jiří Kylián, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Eyal Dadon, Mauro Bigonzetti, Itzik Galili). She is currently member of the ensemble Dekkadancers in the productions A Streetcar Named Desire (ch. Arthur Pita) and The Seagull (ch. Ondřej Vinklát). She also works as a movement assistant at the Opera of the National Theatre in Prague in Rusalka and as a teacher at the ZUŠ Prosek, at the Dance Conservatory of the Capital City of Prague and at the Drama Department of the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts.