The Slovenian ballet soloist TIJUANA KRIŽMAN HUDERNIK has, despite the fact of her rather late decision to become a professional ballet dancer, in a very short time completed her training at the Conservatory for Music and Ballet in Maribor in 2002. In 2004, after passing an audition, she mastered her two-year perfection period at the Academy of the Scala in Milan with honours. The same year, she became a member of the Maribor ballet ensemble, and was promoted to ballet soloist in 2008.
Her vast repertoire comprises of important ballet roles of romantic ballet, such as: Princess Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Sugarplum Fairy and Clara (The Nutcracker), Pas de trois (Swan Lake), Gamzati (Bayadère), Effie (Le Silphide), the title role of the ballet Giselle, Gulnare (Le Corsaire), among others. She also danced contemporary choreographies in ballets such as Juliet (Radio and Juliet), Marie in Wozzeck, Marina (Zorba the Greek), Olga (Jevgenij Onjegin), Ingrid and Solvieg (Peer Gynt), etc. Furthermore, she also participated in conceptual dance projects: Quatro, Prêt-à-porter, Watching Others, Europe Today, The Architecture of Silence, The Masters of Time, Sladko Sweet, Stabat Mater, Carmina Burana, Handmann, Le sacre du printemps, Falling Angels, Les Noces. She created remarkable roles in Death in Venice, Carmen, Paquita, Don Quixote, Dangerous Liaisons (Cécile de Volanges), etc. Tijuana was featured also in opera productions of Lakmé, La traviata, Tosca, La forza del destino, Nabucco and Madama Butterfly. She regularly performs on various tours in Luxemburg, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Singapore, the USA, Canada, Columbia, South Korea, Russian Federation, Brazil, as well as in Japan, Portugal, and Finland.
Since 1998, after she won the first prize in ballet competition in Klagenfurt, she was awarded with many other titles, becoming a laureate in competitions in Freiburg, Florence, Ljubljana, Vienna (2007), Rome and Maribor, among others. In 2007, she was also given a special Lydia Wisiak award for the year 2006 (for her portrayal of Princess Aurora in Tschaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty), conferred by the Slovene Ballet Artists’ Society for special achievements in ballet art. In 2010, Tijuana received also a special Tartini recognition for exceptional cultural achievements that have greatly contributed to cultural development and welfare of the Municipality of Piran.
Photo by Tiberiu Marta