Václav Kuneš

Václav Kuneš's journey from his dance beginnings through a stellar international career to "dance retirement".

Václav Kuneš's journey from his dance beginnings through a stellar international career to "dance retirement". In the dance world, he is considered an ace choreographer. He was a dancer at Nederlands Dans Theater and danced as a soloist at the New National Theater in Tokyo. He worked as an assistant to Jiří Kylián, staging his choreographies in many famous theatres around the world. The public in the Czech Republic came to know him as "the kindest judge" of the dance competition StarDance (adaptation of Strictly Come Dancing).

Documentary filmmaker Slobodanka Radun uses the life story of Václav Kuneš to show how a dancer's body functions after decades of hard training. Václav Kuneš comes to the realisation that from a certain age a dancer cannot do what a colleague 20 years younger can, but he can still cultivate his experience and share it with the audience. Václav Kuneš says about aging: "I always thought that when I turned 40 my life would change, that I would stop dancing because I wouldn't be able to dance as well as I used to. But now my life is changing because I'm discovering that that's not the case."

Václav Kuneš, founder of the renowned dance company 420PEOPLE, is therefore today coming forward with an original project for "aging" dancers called 42+PEOPLE. He was inspired not only by his own age, but also by Jiří Kylián's former company Nederlands Dans Theater 3, which was allegedly also designed for dancers "between 40 and death".

Production Company Czech Television
TV Director Slobodanka Radun
Camera Prokop Souček
Production year 2023