The State Award in Culture for Pavel Šmok

Choreographer Pavel Šmok received the Ministry of Culture Award for the Contribution to the Discipline of Theatre.  Pavel Šmok was a soloist at the ballet in Plzen, head of the ballet in Usti nad Labem, co-founder of Balet Praha (1964), artistic director of the ballet in Basel (1970-73), founder of the Prague Chamber Ballet, and artistic director of the ballet of the State Opera.
He has collaborated with a multitude of foreign theaters. At present, he is a professor of choreography at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (HAMU) and adviser to the director of the State Opera for ballet.
Pavel Šmok has considerably influenced the development of Czech artistic dance of the 20th and 21st centuries. Besides his own extensive artistic oeuvre, he has supported the choreographic ambitions of the dancers whom he has worked with. Moreover, as an instructor at the dance department of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, he has nurtured an entire generation of Czech choreographers.