“We are happy that such a great artist, who is also a great Frenchman, will serve as a linking bridge between the Albanian and French culture,” said President Bujar Nishani.
TIRANA, May 12 – Famous Albanian-French choreographer Angjelin Preljocaj has been honoured with the Nation’s Honour presidential order for representing the best of Albania’s values in choreography internationally and making everyone proud of being Albanian.
The award with one of the highest presidential orders came after Preljocaj staged at the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet two of his most popular pieces, returning to Albania after 20 years.
Speaking at a ceremony at his office, President Bujar Nishani said “By honouring Preljocaj as the Nation’s Honour we honour the culture, the history and Albanian art, but also the great country where he grew up and was given the opportunity, the France of culture and democracy, the friendship between our two countries and the hope we as Albanians have for our European future.”
“We are happy that such a great artist, who is also a great Frenchman, will serve as a linking bridge between the Albanian and French culture,” added Nishani.
In a comparison to the double-headed eagle, the symbol on Albania’s national flag, Preljocaj said “two heads means that I have two cultures inside; the French culture and everything else I inherited from my family with deep roots in the Albanian culture.” “These two cultural streams flowing inside me are the cause and have contributed to my peculiarity. This peculiarity gives me the opportunity to be a modest linking bridge between Albania and France, to show that Albania is a completely European country,” he added.
Almost two years after the latest performance of the Ballet Preljocaj, the contemporary dance choreographer staged in Tirana “La Stravaganza” and “Royaume Uni” ballet shows. Preljocaj himself returned to Albania 20 years after his Noces show soon after he first visited Albania following the collapse of the country’s communist regime in the early 1990s.
Since founding Ballet Preljocaj in 1985, Angelin Preljocaj has created 45 choreographic works, ranging from solos to larger formations. The company performs internationally and at home in France where it is recognized as one of the country’s leading dance companies.
Born in Paris just five days after his parents escaped from communist Albania, Preljocaj felt French while at school and Albanian when at home with his parents and their tight-knit community of Albanian friends,” The Guardian writes about him.
In 1992, Preljocaj, now an internationally famous representative of the Albanian diaspora, was invited back to the newly democratised country, and taken by presidential helicopter to his parents’ mountain village. His choreographic work is steeped in his writing of the history of classical ballet, but is resolutely contemporary. He is considered one of the most important choreographers of dance today. He joined the repertoire of the Ballet de l’Op곡 national de Paris in the early 1990s and has headed the company since 1985. In 1995, he received the Prix Benois de la Danse as choreographer. Preljocaj, subsequently renamed Ballet Preljocaj, has been in residence at the Black Hall of Aix-en-Provence since 1996.
