Zofia Rudnicka is a dancer, choreographer, actress, and educator. She graduated from the Roman Turczynowicz Ballet School in Warsaw and the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where she has taught dance composition, among other courses, and received her postdoctoral degree in 2014.
For the entire length of her ballet career, Rudnicka was affiliated with the Grand Theater in Warsaw, where she performed leading parts in classical and contemporary repertoire as a soloist. Among others, she danced as Myrtha in Giselle, Phrygia in Spartacus, Phaedra in Lifar’s Phaedra, Taglioni in Perrot’s Grand pas de quatre, and Consuelo in Mendez’s Late in the Afternoon. At the same time, she collaborated with the Polish national television TVP as a dancer and choreographer.
Rudnicka has created more than a dozen of ballet productions, including the world premieres of Nienasycenie (Insatiability) set to music by Tomasz Stańko and La Dolce Vita, a piece about Federico Fellini set to music by Nino Rota, as well as Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker with Pyotr Tchaikovskys music, along with choreographies for dozens of operas, operettas, musicals, ballet films, e.g. Podróż magiczna (Magic Journey, set to music by Andrzej Zieliński, together with Gerard Wilk), La valse set to music by Maurice Ravel, or Mity (Myths) to music by Karol Szymanowski. She also choreographed the ballet Little Red Riding Hood (set to music by Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska) and dozens of etudes and variations for the students of the Warsaw Ballet School. These choreographic experiences served as a material for her book Tancerz, szkoła i scena – etiudy choreograpficzne jako istotny element rozwoju ucznia (Dancer, school and stage: choreographic etudes as a vital element in the artistic development of students). The book was based on her postdoctoral dissertation.
Rudnicka’s long-time choreographic collaboration with television begun in the 1970s and includes hundreds of entertainment broadcasts across a range of styles; recitals of Polish star singers such as Zdzislawa Sosnicka, Maryla Rodowicz, Anna Jantar; stylistic concept of the Vox Group; dance shows of the Alibabki band; choreographies for several seasons of the Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej television show. She has also choreographed for films (Akademia Pana Kleksa), fashion shows, song festivals, as well as ballet films and Polish Television Theater productions. She has also worked with the Grand Theater in Łódź, Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Entertainment Theater in Chorzów, Jerzy Szaniawski Drama Theater in Płock, Syrena Theater in Warsaw, Gliwice Musical Theater and the Mazovian Musical Theater “Operetta.” As an actress, she was featured on Kabaret Olgi Lipińskiej. In 1995, she resumed her collaboration with Lipińska and took charge of choreography in the cabaret (until its dissolution in 2005). She also appeared in Polish films: Kontrakt (1980), Pas de deux (1990) and Bank nie z tej ziemi (1993–1994).
Rudnicka has won many awards and honors, including the “Golden Mask” for her ballet choreography Rudolf Valentino featuring music by Krzesimir Dębski, produced at the Rozrywki Theater in Chorzów, the Jan Kiepura Theater Music Award for Best Choreographer in 2011 for her rendition of Dance of the Hours in Amilcare Ponchielli’s opera Gioconda, and the annual award of the Society of Authors ZAiKS in 2013.
Together with the outstanding ballerina Ewa Głowacka, Rudnicka developed a traditional version of the ballet Giselle at the Wrocław Opera House in 2018. In 2020, she was awarded the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture “Gloria Artis.”
2019 saw the premiere of Rudnicka’s book Gerard Wilk. Tancerz (Gerard Wilk: a dancer), dedicated to the Polish ballet icon and soloist in Maurice Béjart’s legendary Ballet du XX e siècle company.
In 2021, she choreographed the ballet night Wizje miłości/Mity (Visions of Love/Myths), dedicated to Ewa Głowacka and performed at the Castle Opera House in Szczecin.
In December 2021, the performance We Love Chopin, originated and choreographed by Rudnicka, was staged at the inauguration of the newly founded ballet company of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok.
