Michal Caban

Michal Caban (b. 1961), stage director, choreographer, master of ceremonies, universal stage, film and television artist. Following a yearlong practical training at the Barrandov Film Studios, and studies at the Prague School of Economics (International Business Studies), he has devoted himself chiefly to his career in the performing arts.

While still students, Michal together with his brother Šimon formed an ensemble known as Baletní jednotka Křeč (“Convulsion Ballet Unit”, 1981), combining dance and drama, which also became widely known for its participation in collective projects mounted by members of the generation of theatre artists grouped loosely in the “Prague Five”, with whom they have produced numerous theatre performances, one-off multimedial events, films, and television programmes. A milestone in the development of Baletní jednotka Křeč was its involvement, in 1983, in the making of Miloš Forman’s film, Amadeus, where its members appeared in the scene of Don Giovanni, choreographed by Twyla Tharp. There followed a string of the company’s own theatre and audio-visual productions, climaxing in the late 1980s with the rock music-dance event, Show Tomáše Tracyho (Tomáš Tracy Show, 1989). There, Baletní jednotka Křeč, along with the rock outfit, Laura a její tygři, presented before a crowd of four thousand gathered in the auditorium of the then Palace of Culture in Prague a show coupling music with visual effects, making full use of the venue’s multistage space, a performance generating a powerful impulse for audience participation and filled with fascination. The ensemble’s long-time collaboration with the rest of the “Prague Five” reached its peak in 1989, with the making of the eponymous five-part feature film directed by Tomáš Vorel. In it, Baletní jednotka Křeč created a dance screen story entitled Barvy (Colours), choreographed and co-directed by Michal Caban. Further choreographies made by the brothers Caban, either with Baletní jednotka Křeč, or with other dancers, have included dance and motion scenes in a number of films, television programmes and videos, including among others Tomáš Vorel’s film, Kouř (Smoke, 1991); Karel Smyczek’s and Michael Kocáb’s Pražákům, těm je hej (Prague is Tops, 1991); and the American films, Dune (2000); and Children of Dune (2002).

In 1992, they completed the first feature film of their own making, Don Gio, an expressive musical morally-cultural horror story based on the opera of W. A. Mozart. There, they opened the door in the medium of cinema to a Postmodern spirit of freedom, a work which reacted to the transformations taking place in Prague’s postrevolutionary cultural society, using as its vehicle the Mozartian-Faustian myth.

Šimon Caban has worked with Prague’s Opera Mozart on its experimental productions, The Best of Mozart (1990), and Serail Live!, based on Mozart’s music. In 1994, he created stage sets for the successful musical, Má férová Josefína (My Fair Josephine), mounted by Prague’s Karlín Musical Theatre, and for Roman Balogh’s ballet, Casanova, staged at the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Plzeň.

Michal Caban was engaged as a choreographer with the ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre (Austria), working on its opera and stage concert productions, Später Nachmittag im Paradies (1992); Die Versunkene Welt; O. T.; Der Kaiser von Atlantis (1993); and KAR (1994), which were performed at Klagenfurt and Salzburg, Austria, as well as in Germany, Switzerland and Prague. On commissions from Czech Television, Michal Caban has made a three-part documentary on dance and movement in Czechoslovakia, Možné cesty pohybu 1–3 (The Possible Ways of Movement 1–3, 1991); a special music show featuring the outfit, Šum Svistu, entitled Tajný film (Secret Movie, 1991); and a television production of the opera, Don Giovanni (1991), staged at Prague’s Estates Theatre. The most recent film directed by Michal Caban and visually conceived by Šimon Caban, KusPoKusu (Piece-by-Piece, 1998), comprised of seven “visions” blending movement and visual art, won the Special Prize of the Jury at the 1998 Golden Prague International Television Festival, and the same award at the IMZ Dance Screen television festival in Cologne, Germany, in 1999.

In the mid-1990s, the brothers Caban stage-managed an unorthodox fashion show launched by Simona Rybáková and Ida Saudková, featuring members of the “Prague Five” and other popular actors and singers, presented under the title, Fešnšou ze seknhendu (Second-hand Fashion Show, 1995). The television live recording from that happenning, which has since assumed something very close to a cult dimension, has since been given many repeat showings on the small screen. Subsequently, in a reunion with Baletní jednotka Křeč, the brothers presented a “sentimental-positive” stage production, Začínáme končit (Beginning to End, 1996), reflecting the time of childhood, youth and puberty. Their latest stage project realized so far was the “industrial vision”, Corpus sex Máchiňa (1999), created specially for the Four Plus Four Days in Motion International Theatre Festival held on the premises of former industrial factory assembly halls in the Prague district of Karlín.

In the course of the last decade, the brothers Caban and their colleagues have become a sought-after creative team in the realization of atypical one-off corporative promotional and celebratory functions noted for their originality, dynamic stage action and flawlessly professional execution. From 1995–2002, they regularly designed the architectural makeup of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, as well as its miscellaneous collateral events and official ceremonies, the last of which they have continued to style to this day. In 2000, they also made the Festival’s official film trailer. They worked along similar lines with Czech Television, in the preparatory process for the Golden Prague International Television Festival (1999–2001); and contributed to the stage design and direction of the Popular Music Academy Award Ceremonies (2000–2001).

In the latter half of the 1990s, they worked on various commissions in the fields of choreography (Michal) and movement coaching (Šimon) for Czech Television’s music programmes directed by Jiří Nekvasil. These included the music documentary, Erwin Schulhoff – Zuby mi cvakají v rytmu shimmy (E. S.: My Teeth Clatter to the Rhythm of Shimmy, 1995); and scenic miniatures from Bohuslav Martinů, Knife’s Tears; Spectacular Flight; and The Voice of the Forest (2000).

Šimon Caban has received several Architecture Grand Prix awards. That notwithstanding, he has continuously returned to work in stage design, with projects including the 1997 production at the Prague National Theatre of Smetana’s opera, The Brandenburgers in Bohemia. Figuring prominently among his creations were sets for the Prague State Opera’s 1998 production of Boito’s opera, Nerone. Šimon Caban and costume designer Simona Rybáková were appointed commissioners of the national exposition which earned the Czech Republic in 1999 its historically first Golden Triga, the top award from the Prague Quadriennale world exhibition of stage design. In the same year, Šimon Caban designed the sets for Janek Ledecký’s musical, Hamlet, staged at Prague’s Kalich Theatre, for which he designed, two years later, the sets for another musical by the same composer, Galileo, with costumes designed by Simona Rybáková. Also working in tandem, the two artists designed the sets and costumes for Ta spoušť (The Mess, Divadlo bez zábradlí, Prague, 2001), and Waiting for Godot (Činoherní klub, Prague, 2002). The most recent collective work of Michal and Šimon Caban with Simona Rybáková was a production of Janáček’s The Adventures of the Cunning Little Vixen, at the National Theatre in Prague, in 2003.