Director of the Polish National Ballet and Artistic Director of ballet at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Krysztof Pastor was born in Gdańsk, where he began his dance training. He was a soloist with Conrad Drzewiecki’s Polish Dance Theatre in Poznan, Teatr Wielki in Łódź and Le Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon. In 1985, he joined the Dutch National Ballet (Het Nationale Ballet), where he soon began choreographing. He retired from the stage and began his career as a choreographer with Washington Ballet from 1997 to 1999. From 2003 to 2017, he held the position of Resident Choreographer at the Dutch National Ballet, where he created most of his original ballets. Krzysztof Pastor has created near 70 choreographies throughout his career in Australia (Australian Ballet), Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain (Scottish Ballet), Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden (Royal Swedish Ballet), Turkey and the United States (Washington Ballet and Joffrey Ballet).

Pastor received choreographic awards at the Helsinki International Ballet Competition and from the Dutch Foundation Dansersfonds’79. He was also honored with special prizes from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the Polish Theatre Artists Union and the Polish Society of Authors and Composers, and was awarded with the “Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis” Gold Medal, the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Honorary Golden Star from Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. In 2017, he received the title of “Outstanding Pole” from the Polish Promotional Emblem Foundation “Teraz Polska”.