Alicja Boniuszko – outstanding Polish dancer and choreographer. She was born on 16 October in 1937 in Miadzioł (near Vilnius). After 1945, as a result of the repatriation, she moved to Poland and lived in Gdańsk. She graduated from the Secondary Ballet School there (1956). She was a favourite dancer of Janina Jarzynówna-Sobczak, an excellent teacher and choreographer. She joined the Baltic Opera where a ballet group was created at that time. Since 1956 she was the prima ballerina of the Baltic Opera and she performed most of the leading parts of classical and contemporary ballets presented at the Opera. She took part in many Polish and international ballet competitions, winning, among others, third prize in the International Dance Competition in Rio de Janerio (1961). In 1977 she retired from her dancing career to fully concentrate on choreography. In 2000 the Gdańsk City Council rewarded Boniuszko with Medal of Duke Mestwin II for her lifetime achievement in culture, in particular for her artistic accomplishments and for making the name of Gdańsk famous in Poland and abroad. In 2009 Alicja Boniusza received the Golden Gloria Artis Medal.
Most important parts:
Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Bride (Harnasie), the Girl (The Miraculous Mandarin), She (Four Essays, music by T. Baird), Niobe (Niobe, music by Juliusz Łucik), Zobeida (Scheherazade)
Most important choreographies:Scheherazade(together with J. Jarzynówną-Sobczak),Bluebeard’s Castle (together with J. Jarzynówną-Sobczak),Antigona(stage movement)
