Letter to Eva Blažíčková – Ondrej Krejčí, 2022

Dear Mrs. Blažíčková,

I believe you still remember me. I saw your Ring volný [Open Ring] interview with Jan Malík and Petr Tyc. Very interesting — it reminded me of many things from my time studying at the Duncan Centre Conservatory.

Until now, we haven’t had the chance to reflect on the contribution and life perspective that I gained at such a young age. I had wanted to contact you several times, but only now have I finally managed to sit down in peace and not forget anything.

After graduating from Duncan, it wasn’t easy abroad for one reason: you set the bar — and my thanks go to everyone who enriched our path at KDC — very high in how to perceive the quality and energy of art, not only dance.

I am grateful that I was able to study at Duncan and experience a school that I hold in my heart like the Hogwarts School of Magic from Harry Potter. Because for me, real magic happened there, and it kept that childlike quality alive — the sense of never stopping creating and imagining.

As I was listening to you, I had a smile on my face, because you still say that this is one of your missions — to awaken, open, and preserve this in children/students. It’s beautiful.

I haven’t been professionally involved in dance for over three years now. I left the Neuer Tanz Theatre in Germany more than three years ago because I felt that this very quality in me was being suffocated! And although it was work and I could continue to grow as a professional, I couldn’t allow it to stifle me, close me off, or even disgust me.

I first went to India to study yoga, and after returning, the world opened up for me again. Not only is yoga a huge link to what we explored at Duncan, but the entire life rhythm of the Indian people fascinated me. And I couldn’t continue living the way I had in England, the Czech Republic, or Germany.

I moved to the Mediterranean, to Mallorca. I met my wife there (which was one of the reasons I moved, I won’t lie). I started working for a German company as a window cleaner, and today I am a project manager responsible for a team handling garden renovations and redesigns for mostly German clients. In the end, this forced me to learn two more languages. In this way, I stepped away from the artistic scene — but far from the creative one.

Whatever path I chose in life, whenever the work was creative, I was “dancing.” And there were many such paths: nanny, gardener, in front of and behind the camera in film, teaching children and ladies up to eighty-five years old. That was my favourite group of students.

With warm greetings and wishes for a lovely day — I hope we will have the chance to meet again someday.

Ondrej Krejčí, 2022, dancer and choreographer