The beauty of choreographic genius – Oleg Danovski, proponent of the national ballet repertoire

Abstract A prominent figure in national ballet, Oleg Danovski is one of the personalities of 20th century ballet. He gave the world a vast repertoire consisting of classical, neoclassical, modern ballets, Romanian ballets, and divertimentos for operas. Despite his success with classical ballet staging that would make him famous abroad, the choreographer also turned his attention to folklore, by addressing specific local themes. Thus, through this desire to study and stylize the folk dance, he brought an important contribution to the Romanian cultivated dance, from which the image of the Romanian character dance would stem. He was devoted to the idea of Romanian ballet theater and he advocated for original music for ballet, a national repertoire and the development of the Romanian ballet school. His Romanian creations are precious pages of the history of Romanian ballet that should not be forgotten, and that have enormously contributed to the enrichment of the original choreographic repertoire.