The decoration has been conferred by the President of the Republic since 1922 for particularly outstanding services to the state. These are mostly attributed to politicians and presidents, but merit can also be earned in the field of battle, diplomacy or in connection with exceptional personal heroism.

Jiří Kylián was born in 1947 in Prague, where he also graduated from the Prague Dance Conservatory in 1967. After a scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London, he was engaged by John Cranko at Stuttgarter Ballett from 1969-1975. From Germany he moved to the Netherlands where he was co-director and choreographer at Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) in The Hague from 1975-1977, artistic director from 1978-1999 and choreographer since 1999. In addition to the main NDT ensemble, he founded the junior ensemble NDT 2 (1978) and the senior ensemble NDT 3 (1991). Jiří Kylián has spent most of his creative life in The Hague and as director has built one of the world's best dance companies. He has left an indelible mark of his exceptional talent and artistry there forever. He is currently producing his own mainly visual projects and runs the Kylián Foundation NL with his own production unit Kylián Productions BV.

“I am delighted that this award was received by an important world choreographer who has never lost his awareness of his Czech roots and has managed to expand our humorous, poetic and ironic view of the world through great dance theatre," adds Jan Burian, director of the National Theatre.

Jiří Kylián has created a hundred choreographies, seventy-five of them for the NDT in The Hague, others for the Stuttgart Ballet, the Paris Opera, the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, the Tokyo Ballet and others. His choreographies are key works in the repertoire of all the world's prestigious companies. He created his latest choreography Remember me for dancer and lifelong muse Sabine Kupferberg in 2019 on the occasion of his inauguration in Paris, when he was elected a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, the highest honor one can receive in the art world. Until now, membership in this prestigious academy has been awarded in seven artistic disciplines; on 25 April, when Jiří Kylián was elected, choreography (and dance) became its new category.

Jiří Kylián is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including: Commander of the Order of the Legion of Honour (France), Golden Lion (Venice), Officer of the Order of Orange (Netherlands), Honorary Doctorate from the Juilliard School in New York, Honorary Doctorate from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, three Václav Nijinsky Awards (for best choreography, for best ballet company and for One of a Kind, Monte Carlo), two Prix de Benois de la Danse (Moscow and Berlin), the Honorary Medal of President Václav Havel, the Medal for Art and Science of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and others. In 2011, Jiří Kylián received the Czech Ministry of Culture Award for his contribution to the development of the art of dance and his continuous support of Czech dance, as well as the Czech Television Award for the documentary film Forgotten Memories. In 2017 he received the honorary citizenship of the City of The Hague (Netherlands) and the Positano Premia la Danza Léonide Massine for his lifetime achievement, the oldest dance award in the world.

Source: National Theatre