Maria Bilska (née Palt) – Polish dancer and teacher. Born 13 August 1949 in Katowice, died 25 October 2019 in Łódź.
After graduating from the State Ballet School in Bytom she worked as a coryphée at the Opera Śląska (Silesian Opera) in Bytom and as a teacher of classical and folk dance at the school in Bytom. In 1976, she became a Master of Arts in dance pedagogy at the Music Education Faculty of the State College of Music (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Muzyczna) in Warsaw.
Upon her graduation in 1968, she was employed at the ballet section of the Opera Śląska as a coryphée. She began her career in education in 1970. In 1970-1976, she taught classical dance and folk dance at the State Ballet School in Bytom, and in 1976-1977 lectured at the Acting College affiliated with the Teatr Polski in Wrocław. After obtaining her master’s she began work as a dance teacher at the Wrocławski Teatr Pantomimy, where she remained until 1984. In 1985-1986, she worked as a choreographer for Estrada Łódzka in Łódź.
Between 1984 and 2008, she was employed at the ballet school in Łódź as a teacher of classical and historical dance. From 1985, she was in charge of the vocational subjects section and worked as assistant principal of the school between 1989 and 1999.
From 1992 to 2013, she was a lecturer of classical dance, dance methodology and teaching methodology at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Faculty of Choir Conducting, Music Education, Church Music, Eurhythmics and Dance.
As a lecturer, she also cooperated with the Theatre College in Kraków (Wrocław branch, 1983-1984), the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź (Faculty of Composition, Music Theory, Conducting, Eurhythmics and Music Education, 1986-1992) and the Academy of Humanities and Economics in Łódź (Arts Faculty, 2009-2018).
In 1977, she made the choreography for Żołnierz Królowej Madagaskaru (J. Tuwim, directed by J. Grzegorzewski, Teatr Polski in Wrocław) and 1988 she was a choreographic consultant for the film titled Lalki Władysława Starewicza (directed by W. Berestowski). She was the assistant of Izabela Gorzkowska-Głowacka when they were working on the ballet Nasze życie, nasze sny (Teatr Wielki in Łódź, 1991) and created stage movement for Podróż do zielonych cieni (F. Methling, directed by T. Junak, Teatr Logos in Łódź, 1996).
Maria Bilska was honoured with the title ‘Distinguished Cultural Activist’ (1988), and she was awarded the ‘Medal of 200 Years of Polish Ballet’ (2000) and the ‘Medal For Merit to the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music’ (2013).
