Edward Clug

Born in Beiuș, Romania, Edward Clug graduated in 1991 from the National Ballet School in Cluj-Napoca and received his first engagement with the ballet company of the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor. He discovered his passion for choreography early on and, after several successful works, was appointed artistic director of the National Ballet in Maribor in 2003. In 2005, he created Radio & Juliet to the music of Radiohead, which brought him international recognition. His interpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (2012) and his first full-length ballet Peer Gynt (2015) established him as a leading choreographic voice of his generation. Over the years, Clug has created numerous shorter ballets, culminating most recently in a new version of the beloved classic The Nutcracker (2022) for Stuttgart Ballet.

He has collaborated frequently with Zurich Ballet, where his full-length ballet Faust premiered in 2018. He has also worked successfully with Nederlands Dans Theater I and II. For the Bolshoi Ballet, he adapted Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece The Master and Margarita, and most recently, he created a version of Coppélia for Ballet Basel. His work has led to invitations from major companies, including the Vienna State Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, the Czech National Ballet in Prague, the Croatian National Ballet in Zagreb and Rijeka, the National Ballet of Bucharest, Aalto Ballet Essen, Bitef Dance Company in Belgrade, the National Ballet of Kyiv, West Australian Ballet in Perth, Ballet Dortmund, and the Novosibirsk State Ballet.

For his contributions to the arts, Clug has received numerous national and international awards, including the Silver Order of Merit of the State of Slovenia and Romania’s Medal for Cultural Merit, both in 2022.