# Milko Šparemblek

Milko Šparemblek (1 December 1928 – 25 February 2025) was a Slovenian-born Croatian dancer, choreographer, stage director, and film director. He made about 40 ballet films and to date there have been about 150 premieres of his work in over 50 theatres around the world. Šparemblek received a number of awards including a Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award and a Distinguished Artist Award from the International Society for the Performing Arts.

## Background

Šparemblek was born in Prevalje on 1 December 1928, as an only child. At the age of three, his family moved to Zagreb, Croatia to a neighbourhood called Kustošija. He enrolled in the V. high school of Zagreb and participated in athletics. He attended the University of Zagreb to study Comparative literature, that same year starting to dance at the Zagreb Opera (later known as the Croatian National Theatre) under the direction of choreographers and dancers Ana Roje and Oskar Harmoš.
Šparemblek died on 25 February 2025, at the age of 96.

## Career around the work

In 1948 Šparemblek joined the Croatian Ballet ensemble at the Croatian National Theatre where he studied classical, contemporary and folkloric dances. Four years later in 1952, he was promoted to Ballet Soloist by recommendation of Dame Ninette de Valois and in 1953 he left Zagreb for Paris on a Franco-Yugoslav Scholarship. He studied under Olga Preobrajenska, a graduate of the Imperial Ballet School in Moscow, and later under Serge Peretti in the Paris Opera School of Ballet. After completing his scholarship, he began dancing in small cabarets, music halls and working as an extra in movie production in order to pay for his studies.
Šparemblek became a member of several different ballet companies, including the Janine Charrat company, the Maurice Béjart company, the Ballet de l'Étoile, the Milorad Miskovitch company and the Ludmila Tcherina company. In 1956 he choreographed his first ballet called "L'Échelle".
In New York he studied contemporary dance techniques under Jose Limon and Marhe Graham.

## Career as a choreographer

Šparemblek was a Ballet Master in Brussels under the director M. Bejart in the Ballet de XX. Sc. He was a Director of the Lisbon Gulbekian Ballet and he was a Director of Ballet in the New York Metropolitan Opera Director of Ballet in the Lyon Opera the Lyon. In 1985, he choreographed Pastoral - 6th Symphony of Beethoven - world premiére, for the ballet company Ballet Teatro Guaíra, in the city of Curitiba, state of Paraná, in Brazil, which was also performed in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. He was also a director of Ballet in the Zagreb Croatian National Theatre, where in 2012 he choreographed the Miraculous Mandarin, and in 2014 he choreographed a production of the comedy "The good soul of Sichuan" by the Zagreb Municipal Theatre.

## Awards

| Year | Title | Work |
| 1976 | Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana | Trionfo di Afrodite |
| 1979 | Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana | Symphony of Psalms |
| 1981 | Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana | Pjesme Ljubavi i Smrti Songs of Love and Death |
| 1981 | Prix Anik Award, Montreal | The Miraculous Mandarin |
| 1983 | The Canadian Music Counsel | Lifetime achievement |
| 1986 | Josip Štolcer Slavenski Award | Carmina Krležiana |
| 1986 | Slovenian Theater Scholars Award | Lifetime achievement |
| 1986 | Prešeren Award | Triptih Beethoven-Wagner |
| 1987 | The City of Zagreb Award | Making and realisation of the 1987 Universiade "or the 15th annual Universiade" |
| 1988 | Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana | Carmina Krležiana |
| 1990 | Vladimir Nazor Award | Mozart: Amadeus - Monumentum:;ask what this is |
| 1997 | Croatian Theatre Award?!?!hrvatsko glumiste | Overall artistic activity |
| 1998 | Order of Croatian Danica with a figure of Marko Marulić | Lifetime achievement |
| 2001 | Tito Strozzi Award | Johannes Faust Passion |
| 2002 | Vladimir Nazor Award | Life Achievement |
| 2003 | Marul Award | Kraljevo (Krleža) |
| 2005 | X2 Mare Nostrum Awards | Lifetime achievement |
| 2005 | Croatian Theatre Award?!?!hrvatsko glumiste | Fric and the Singer |
| 2007 | Pio and Pina Mlakar Award | 60 years of Artistic Achievements |
| 2010 | International Society for the Performing Arts – Distinguished Artist Award | Lifetime Achievement |
| 2013 | Croatian Theatre Award?!?!hrvatsko glumiste | The Miraculous Mandarin |
| 2020 | Prešeren award | Lifetime achievement |

## Television and film production

| Year | Production | Title and Artist | Role |
| 1958 | Baden-Baden TV | "Fontessa" with modern jazz quartet | Choreography With V. Sulich |
| 1960 | TV Belge (RTBF) | Monteverdi: "Orfeo" | Choreography |
| 1961 | TV Belge (RTBF) | Kelemen: "Heros et Son Miroir" | Dramaturgy, Dance and Choreography |
| 1961 | Sociète Monarch | "Les Amants De Teruel" | Directed By R. Rouleau; Music By Teodorakis, Sauget (Premiere At Theatre Sarah Bernard 1959) Dance, Choreography and Leading Male Role |
| 1962 | ORTF Paris | Šipuš: "Zone Interdite" | Dance and Choreography |
| 1963 | TV Belge (RTBF) | Stravinski: "Histoire de Soldat“ | Dance and Choreography |
| 1963 | ORTF Paris | D'Annunzio, Debussy: "Martyr de St. Sebastien" | Choreography |
| 1963 | TV Köln-Düsseldorf | Poulenc : "Masken" | Choreography |
| 1964 | TV Zagreb (RTZ) | R. Wagner: "Mathilde" | Dance and Choreography |
| 1964 | TV Köln-Düsseldorf | Brecht, Weill: "7 Todtsunden" | Choreography |
| 1964 | ORTF Paris | Rameau: "Pygmalion" | Choreography |
| 1964 | Saar TV | "Swingle Singers" | Dance and Choreography |
| 1965 | München TV | Kaper: "Lili" | Choreography |
| 1965 | ORTF Paris | Claudel, Honegger: "Jeanne au Bucher" | Choreography |
| 1966 | ORTF Paris | Cocteau, Auric: "Phedre" | Dance, Choreography and Co-Direction |
| 1966 | ORTF Paris | Ducas: "La Peri" | Dance and Choreography |
| 1966 | ORTF Paris | Terrasse: "Mons. de La Palice" | Choreography |
| 1966 | München TV | Labiche, Offenbach: "Chapeau de Paille d'Italie" | Choreography |
| 1967 | ORTF Paris | Brecht, Weill: "7 Peches Capitaux" | Dance, Choreography and Direction |
| 1968 | ORTF Paris | Tasso, Monteverdi: "Combatimento" | Choreography and Direction |
| 1968 | ORTF Paris | Molière, Lully: "Bourgeois Gentilhomme" | Choreography |
| 1969 | ORTF Paris | Ray, Kaufman: "La Bague" | Dance, Choreography and Co-Direction |
| 1969 | ORTF Paris | Henry: "Astronomy" | Choreography |
| 1981 | Montreal TV | Bartók: "Mandarin Merveileux" | Choreography |
| 1984 | TV Zagreb (RTZ) | Wagner: "Mathilde" | Dance and Choreography |
| 1988 | TV Zagreb (RTZ) | Chopin: "Chopiniade" | Choreography |
| 1988 | TV Zagreb (RTZ) | Ujević, Šparemblek, Savin: "Gesta Za Tina" | Dramaturgy, Choreography and Direction |
| 1989 | RTV Ljubljana | Gallus: "Enigma Gallus" | Dramaturgy, Choreography and Direction |
| 1994 | RTV Slovenija | Tartini: "Trilo Del Diavolo" | Choreography |
| 1995 | RTV Slovenija | Vivaldi, Wagner: "Objem" | Choreography |
| 1998 | RTV Slovenija | Kumar: "Epitaf za Srečka" | Dramaturgy, Choreography and Direction |
| 1999 | TV Zagreb (HRT) | Mussorgsky: „Pjesme i Plesovi Smrti“ | Choreography and Direction |
| 2000 | RTV Slovenija | Bach: "Toccata i Fuga u D-molu" | Choreography and Direction |