Rajmund Sobiesiak – Polish dancer, ballet master and choreographer. Born 4 September 1929 in Poznań, died 30 June 1999 in Poznań.
In 1937-1939 and 1946-48, he studied at the Ballet College affiliated with the Teatr Wielki (Grand Theatre) in Poznań. He spent the war as a prisoner of the German concentration camp of Stutthoff. From 1951, while already dancing for the Studio Operowe in Gdańsk, he was also a student of the Choreographic College in the same city.
For the 1947/48 season, he was invited to dance in the ballet section of the Opera im. Stanisława Moniuszki in Poznań by its director Zygmunt Latoszewski. In 1949, he found employment at the Opera Śląska (Silesian Opera) in Bytom, where he remained until 1951. In 1951, he became a dancer and, from 1953, a soloist of the Studio Operowe in Gdańsk. In the same year, he also became a teacher of classical dance at the State Secondary Ballet School in Gdańsk. Between 1956 and 1966, he was ballet manager of the Studio Operowe in Bydgoszcz. During that time, he also had internships at the Budapest Opera, the Grand Theatre in Moscow, the National Theatre in Prague and the Komische Oper in Berlin. In 1966-1968, he was the manager of the Teatr Muzyczny (Music Theatre) in Kraków. In 1969-1971, he worked as a ballet master for the Thomas Muntzer Theater in Halle. In 1971-1972, he was in charge of the ballet section of the Opera and Operetta (Opera i Operetka) in Bydgoszcz and in 1972-1973 of the Teatr Muzyczny in Poznań. From 1973 to 1976, he was the ballet manager at the Teatr Muzyczny (Music Theatre) in Szczecin.
Rajmund Sobiesiak’s most notable roles include Host (Zielony kogut, choreographed by J. Kapliński), Best Man I (Wesele w Ojcowie, choreographed by P. Zajlich) and Devil (Pan Twardowski, choreographed by S. Miszczyk).
The artist’s foremost choreographies were Wesele w Ojcowie (Studio Operowe in Bydgoszcz, 1956), The Nutcracker (Studio Operowe in Bydgoszcz, 1958, 1968), The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (Teatr Muzyczny Opery i Operetki in Bydgoszcz, 1959), Romeo and Juliet (Teatr Muzyczny Opery i Operetki in Bydgoszcz, 1962), Eugene Onegin (Teatr Muzyczny Opery i Operetki in Bydgoszcz, 1962), Król Wichrów (Teatr Muzyczny Opery i Operetki in Bydgoszcz, 1963), Pan Twardowski (Opera i Operetka in Bydgoszcz, 1966), The Miraculous Mandarin (Miejski Teatr Muzyczny-Opera i Operetka in Kraków, 1966), Swan Lake (Opera i Operetka in Bydgoszcz, 1972), Peter and the Wolf (Teatr Muzyczny in Szczecin, 1974), Scheherazade (Teatr Muzyczny in Szczecin, 1974), Kwiaty polskie (Teatr Polski in Poznań, 1974), Operetka (Teatr Polski in Poznań, 1976), Azyl (Teatr Dramatyczny in Wałbrzych, 1979), Snow White (Teatr im. Juliusza Osterwy in Lublin, 1980), Cinderella (Teatr im. Juliusza Osterwy in Gorzów Wielkopolski, 1993), The Steadfast Tin Soldier (Teatr Lalek Guliwer in Warsaw, 1998) and many more, created as either independent choreographies or in conjunction with operas and dramas.
