choreographer, pedagogue and director. In 1966, he graduated from the Ballet School in Poznań. Initially he danced with the Poznań Opera ballet (1966-73). When creating the autonomous Polish Dance Theatre, Conrad Drzewiecki offered Wesołowski the position of a soloist there, which the dancer accepted, and in 1976 he became a first soloist of the group. He performed in a number of Drzewiecki’s choreographies, he was also the first dancer to play Jason in Teresa Kujawa's ballet Medea. He danced with the Polish Dance Theatre in many European countries, he also partook in a few ballet films by Drzewiecki. He was a pedagogue at the Poznań ballet school, he also taught ballet master classes at the Polish Dance Theatre ensemble, he prepared his first choreographies for drama theatre. In the 1979-1980 season, he was the director of the Wrocław Opera, and then of Poznań Opera House. In 1982, he became the ballet director and a soloist of the Teatr Wielki – National Opera in Warsaw. In 1985, he gave up this position and focused on choreography. In 1995–2006, he once again took on the role of the ballet director of the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, and in 2007-2008 he was the art director of Poznań Opera House. After that he once again joined the Warsaw ballet and currently he is a regular choreographer of the Polish National Ballet. For many years he also taught at the Faculty of Drama of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz State Drama School in Warsaw. Emil Wesołowski’s original choreographic projects include: Quattro Movimenti (music: B. Schaeffer, Wrocław Opera, 1980); Ballade (music: F. Chopin, 7th Łódź Ballet Meetings, 1983); Tritons (music: Z. Rudziński, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 1985); Games (music: C. Debussy, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 1989, then: Grand Theatre in Łódź, Polish Dance Theatre, Wrocław Opera); Mozartiana (music: P. Tchaikovsky, Polish Dance Theatre, 1990); The Legend of Joseph (music: R. Strauss, Grand Theatre in Łódź, 1991, and Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 1992); Dies Irae (music: R. Maciejewski, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 1991); Le Sacre du printemps (music: I. Stravinsky, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 1993); Romeo and Juliet (music: S. Prokofiev, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 1996, Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, 2000, and Poznań Opera House, 2008); Clio’s Triumph (music: J. Sapiejewski, Washington Ballet, 1997); ballet triptych: Harnasie, Returning Waves (reproduced in Poznań, 2003) and Krzesany (music: K. Szymanowski, M. Karłowicz, W. Kilar, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 1997); Harnasie (music: K. Szymanowski, Poznań Opera House, 1998); The Miraculous Mandarin (music: B. Bartók, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 1999); Sacred Spring (music: I. Stravinsky / T. Mieczkowski, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, 2001); Spartacus (music: A. Khachaturian, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw 2006), Chopinart (music: F. Chopin, Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, 2010), The Kisses (music: J.S. Bach, Polish National Ballet, 2010); Chopinart+ (music: F. Chopin, Baltic Opera, 2012). He has created choreographies for numerous opera productions, both in Poland and abroad, including productions by Mariusz Treliński: Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (Warsaw, Washington, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Valencia), Szymanowski’s King Roger (Warsaw, Wrocław), Verdi’s Othello (Warsaw), Tchaikovsky’s Onegin (Warsaw), Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Warsaw, Los Angeles), Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades (Berlin, Warsaw), Giordano’s Andrea Chénier (Poznań, Washington, Warsaw), and Puccini’s La Bohème (Warsaw, Washington). He has worked with such directors as Laco Adamik, Kazimierz Dejmek and Jerzy Gruza, Jerzy Grzegorzewski, Adam Hanuszkiewicz, Bohdan Hussakowski, Krystyna Janda, Ryszard Peryt, Maciej Prus, Jérôme Savary, Marek Weiss, Krzysztof Zaleski, and Krzysztof Zanussi. His long-time choreographic collaboration with Janusz Wiśniewski has proven particularly successful (in 2017, Goplana directed by Janusz Wiśniewski won the International Opera Award in the Rediscovered Work category). In 1998, he made his directing debut at the Polish National Opera with Rossini’s Semiramida for Ewa Podleś. He then went back to directing: he became the artistic director of Poznań Opera House, staging Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor and Fiddler on the Roof, and he directed Johann Strauss’s Der Zigeunerbaron at the Baltic Opera.
Emil Wesołowski was granted the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restitutia, a Silver Cross of Merit, Medal for Merit to Polish Culture, and Silver and Gold Medals for Merit to Culture “Gloria Artis,” as well as a National Education Commission Medal for his special contribution to education. He was granted an award from Polish Stage Artists Association (ZAiKS) for lifetime achievement, where he also received an honorary membership, and was made a freeman of the City of Poznań.