Paweł Chynowski – theatrologist, ballet critic, librettist and publisher, deputy director of the Polish National Ballet. He graduated from the University of Warsaw; as a student, he started collaborating with “Ruch Muzyczny” and “Życie Warszawy” as a journalist, critic, culture and ballet columnist. He was also a correspondent for “Dance Magazine” (USA) and “Ballett International” (Germany); he wrote the entries on ballet for “PWM Encyclopaedia of Music”, “Polish biographical dictionary”, and the American “International Encyclopaedia of Dance.”
He took many steps to promote dance in Poland: ballet magazine “Taniec” (editor, Poznań and Warsaw), the Woizikovsky Medal awarded every year by the Polish Dance Theatre for the best young dancer, the celebration of the International Dance Day in Poland, the celebration of 200 years of Polish ballet in 1985 organized by the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw. Then, as a dramatist and ballet consultant of the Teatr Wielki, he founded the Warsaw Ballet Days and national celebration of the 100th anniversary of Vaclav Niijsky. In 1992–2009 he was the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera’s literary manager, the author of the theatre’s programmes and many publications. Since 2009, he has been the representative of the general director of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera for ballet. At the same time, he is the partner and deputy of the Polish National Ballet’s Director, Krzysztof Pastor, with whom he is creating a new image of the group.
Paweł Chynowski is also the author of ballet librettos: Stanisław and Anna Oświęcim (Warszawa, 1976; Gdańsk 1992; Poznań 2009), The Myth of Alexander (1978, the ballet has never been staged), Our Nijinsky (Warszawa, 1989), Chopin’s Muses (Warszawa, 1991), The Count of Monte Cristo (Poznań, 2005), and the adaptation of the libretto The Nutcracker (together with the choreographer Sławomir Woźniak, Grand Theatre in Poznań, 2006). His awards include: Silver Cross of Merit (1986), Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2005), Medals of Diaghilev, Niijsky, Bogusławski, Chopin and Szymanowski, and of the 200th anniversary of Polish Ballet.
