The ballet dancer, choreographer, director, writer and educator Henrik Neubauer has died at the age of 95. The doyen of ballet in Slovenia and an internationally influential figure, he was a recipient this year of a Prešeren Prize, the country’s highest accolade for lifetime achievement, in recognition of his many merits and endeavours in various fields of culture and the arts. He was instrumental in the creation of International Dance Day, which has been celebrated throughout the world on 29 April for the last 42 years.

One of the most prominent artists Slovenia has ever produced, he achieved international recognition for Slovene ballet. As a pioneering researcher of the history of dance in Slovenia, he was responsible for the first comprehensive overview of the history and development of the art of dance in this country. He also wrote the first theoretical works on dance and movement in our cultural sphere and collaborated on various encyclopaedias and other reference works.

His professional involvement with ballet began in 1944 when he attended Maks Kirbos’s ballet school in Ljubljana. Between 1946 and 1957 he performed at the Ljubljana Opera House, initially as a member of the corps de ballet and later as a soloist. He completed a medical degree in 1953 and graduated the same year from the Secondary School of Ballet in Ljubljana. He went on to train in Moscow, Leningrad (as it was then) and the USA.

In 1952 he began choreographing dramatic, operatic and, eventually, ballet performances. He was the director of the Ljubljana Ballet from 1960 to 1972 and the general and artistic director of the Ljubljana Festival from 1972 to 1982. Beginning in 1984, he spent two years as the head of the Maribor Opera. He taught at the Ljubljana Academy of Music from 1989 until 2002 and effectively founded the undergraduate Opera School programme there.

Undoubtedly one of his greatest achievements was the addition of our city’s name to the list of Europe’s biggest festivals, when, five years after taking over the Ljubljana Festival, he accepted an invitation to join the European Festivals Association. All the newspapers in the country hailed this milestone in November 1977 with the headline “A major international recognition”. At that time, membership of the EFA was limited to a narrow circle consisting of only the most important festivals. Henrik Neubauer completed three terms of office at the head of the Ljubljana Festival before his retirement.

He received numerous awards and accolades for his work as a choreographer and director. In 2009 he was presented with the Golden Order of Merit of the Republic of Slovenia. Most recently he was honoured with the Prešeren Prize in recognition of a lifetime’s contribution to the arts and culture that has permanently enriched Slovenia’s cultural landscape and enhanced our country’s prestige. On receiving this accolade, Neubauer said: “When we have a culture of respecting one another, we will be able to say that culture means a lot to us.”

We will remember him fondly.