Choreographer
Anželika Cholina is one of the most prominent Lithuanian choreographers, Associate Professor at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, founder of A|CH theatre.
In 2011 Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė awarded the director and choreographer with Knight’s Order for Merits to Lithuania.
In 2016 she was awarded with the main state prize to the cultural work in Lithuania ‘Carry your Light and Believe’.
In 2020 Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda awarded the director and choreographer with the Officer's Cross for Merits to Lithuania.
In 1989 Cholina graduated from Vilnius Ballet School and in 1996 she graduated from Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) as a director-choreographer. Her choreographic debut was ballet in two acts, “Medea” (1996) – awarded Saint Christopher prize for choreography. She has been awarded with Golden Cross of the Stage for the best choreography twice (“Othello” 2006, “Anna Karenina” 2011).
Anželika Cholina has staged over 40 works: dance performances, ballets, musicals, operetta and operas, more than 100 choreographic miniatures. She is a choreography director of several episodes of "Warner Brothers" and “NetworkUSA” movies.
Modern choreography miniatures staged by Anželika Cholina for her students in Vilnius Ballet School and in Munich Dance Academy were awarded with Grand-prix and golden medals of international ballet competitions in Lausanne, Varna, Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, New-York, Stockholm, Munich and Helsinki.
Golden Stage Cross
Award "Carry your light and believe"
Cholina’s dance performances are exceptional, intertwining elements of classical ballet, modern dance and acting. According to the choreographer, the means of expression and the choice of dancers and actors depend only on the performance theme. And their range is truly wide, varying from ancient dramas and productions of world literature classics to choreographic improvisations inspired by Argentinian tango or Lithuanian folk music.
Experience
Choreographer is invited to work in main theaters in Lithuania and abroad.
She staged ballets “Medea” and “Barbora Radvilaitė” at Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre; dance performances “Songs of Women”, “Carmen”, “The House of Bernarda Alba” at Lithuanian National Drama Theatre; operetta “Madame Pompadour” and opera “Traviata” at Kaunas State Musical Theatre.
Since 2008 Cholina had collaborated with Moscow State Academic E. Vakhtangov Theatre, where she implemented Dance performance genre and created dance performances “The Coast of Women”, “Anna Karenina”, “Otello”, "Men and women" and created choreography for Tuminas’ performances “Eugene Onegin”, “Minetti" and "Oedipus the King".
In 2012, dance performance “Anna Karenina” was nominated as the Best musical performance for the highest Russian theatre award “Golden Mask”, in 2013 was acknowledged as the Best performance of the year in Cuba’s festival “Villanueva 2013”. The same year, choreographer received Oleg Jankovsky award “Creative discovery” and “Othello” received Theatre award “Theatre goers Star” as the Best musical performance.
She debuted as a choreographer at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre in 2016 with “Katerina Izmailova” by Dmitri Shostakovich (conductor: Tugan Sokhiev, director: Rimas Tuminas) and later in 2018 was invited to be director-choreographer of “Queen of Spades” (conductor: Tugan Sokhiev, director: Rimas Tuminas).
In 2017, A. Cholina started collaboration with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko theatre in Moscow on two one act operas “Oedipus the King” and “Blue beard” (conductor F. Korobov, director R. Tuminas).
A. Cholina stopped her work and left Moscow after Russia’s invasion to Ukraine. Since then she has directed numerous dance performances, ballets and operas at Lithuania’s theatres.
A. Cholina’s dance performance “Youth” which she directed at her independent A|CH Theatre has been named the most watched dance performance in Lithuania twice (2023 and 2024). Her latest dance performance “Fairy Tale of the Kings”, dedicated to genius Lithuanian artist and composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and his life, has broken attendance records and already viewed by more than 15 000 theatre goers throughout Lithuania since its premiere in July 2025.