Katarzyna K. Gardzina (previously also: Gardzina-Kubała) journalist, music and ballet critic, a specialist in Russian studies. She graduated from the Faculty of Applied Linguistics and East Slavonic Studies in 2000 and completed a post-graduate course in journalism in 2002 at the University of Warsaw. In 2005, she graduated in Dance Theory from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.
She started her career in journalism in the cultural section of Trybuna and for many years worked as a music critic in Życie Warszawy. She has cooperated with most of the Polish professional music journals, including Ruch Muzyczny, Muzyka21, Twoja Muza, Playbill Scena Polska and Place for Dance, as well as magazines published by opera theatres in Warsaw and Poznań. She writes for local press and pens articles on ballet performances for theatre programmes. For many years she has administrated balet.pl Internet forum. In 2008, together with a group of dance critics, she attempted to reactivate Taniec quarterly. In 2010 she wrote a series of 25 short features on the history and theory of dance for the collection Taniec i balet (Dance and Ballet) published by AGORA publishing house.
For several years, she has run extracurricular activities based on her original programme Teatr muzyczny i świat mediów (Musical Theatre and the World of Media) at the Juliusz Słowacki 7th Secondary School in Warsaw. Together with Sławomir Woźniak, in 2010 she taught a ballet workshop in Warsaws Och-Theatre. Since 2008, she has worked for Studio Blok publishing house, co-authoring Bajki baletowe (Ballet Fairy Tales), a series of childrens books. She has run a series of meetings with opera and ballet artists at the Lokal Użytkowy cafe in Warsaw, as well as Terpsychora Foundation-sponsored series of meetings with dance artists and childrens workshops at the Apteka Sztuki Gallery in Warsaw.
In 2008-2010 she worked as a literary secretary at the Teatr Wielki Polish National Opera in Warsaw. Since 2010, Gardzina-Kubała has regularly cooperated with the Institute of Music and Dance, writing biographical notes and information materials on the Polish ballet scene for taniecPolska.pl, and giving lectures for children and youth, promoting the art of dance as part of the Institutes Thought in Motion programme. In 2014, she was a member of the Artistic Commission of the Polish Dance Platform.
In 2015-2019 she worked for Cikanek Film Ltd., a company distributing opera, ballet and theatre broadcasts to cinemas. Currently, she works as a publishing specialist for the Polish Royal Opera. She runs a ballet blog Na czubkach palców (On Tiptoes, www.naczubkachpalcow.pl)
