The beginnings of Prague Chamber Ballet reach into the 60ties of the 20th century.
Studio Ballet Prague (later only Ballet Prague) was established in 1964 by Luboš Ogoun, Pavel Šmok and Vladimír Vašut. Formation of this company signified a great change in the development of so called Czechoslovakian ballet. Its mission was to experiment and try, what was not possible, not even thinkable within the large regional theatre companies. Despite of all successes and awards the company did not get permanent support or the residency. That’s way the home activities were limited to a minimum and the performances were mainly taking place abroad.
At the end most of the members of the ensemble accepted together with Pavel Šmok residency in Basler Theatre in Switzerland (1970-1973). After this short, but successful pause a step back was followed. Within the communistic circumstances nobody wanted an excellent choreographer who came back from abroad. It took two years, until Pavel Šmok succeeded to revive the main idea of Ballet Prague and to perform on 19th of November 1975 in Theatre Rokoko under the name Prague Chamber Ballet.
Prague Chamber Ballet as a ballet company of Theatre Rokoko was integrated under the organization The Municipal Theatres of Prague, during 1980-1982 the company was working independently and the production was provided by Central Bohemian regional cultural centre (Jiří Opěla), after that Prague Chamber Ballet functioned under the Czech Music Fund and at the end under the organization Pragokoncert. After the revolution in 1989 it was part of Czech Art Studio. For only one year in 1994 the company received the direct support from Czech Republic Ministry of Culture and since 1995 it has become completely independent.
For a short period (1998-2001) Libor Vaculík replaced Pavel Šmok in the artistic direction of the company. Also in the position of group manager Antonín Schneider appeared instead of Jiří Opěla during 1999-2001. The entire company – under the name Ballet Prague – went through a big existence crisis during this time. In 2003 it was affiliated to the State Opera Prague with the hope that it will finally find its permanent „roof over the head“. However a new art director of the SOP ballet company Pavel Ďumbala did not continue in further development of modern dance ensemble, causing an unexpected change in the formation of the company. As a consequence of these undesirable events all original dancers of PCB left and since 2007 the company has become independent again. At the end of that year a young choreographer Lucie Holánková became an art director of the company and remained at that position until 2011. Ladislava Jandová has joined Prague Chamber Ballet as a company manager in 2007.
Since 2012/2013 Prague Chamber Ballet has set up the dramaturgy board consisting of leading personalities of the Czech dance scene (professor Ivanka Kubicová, Markéta Perroud, Hana Turečková), which is responsible for preparing the repertoire and artistic vision of the company.
For more 35 years the repertoire of Prague Chamber Ballet has included Pavel Šmok’s choreographies alongside the works of guest choreographers (R. North, Ch. Bruce, P. Delacroix, P.de Ruiter, J. Hackman, J. Kylián, L. Vaculík, P. Zuska, P. Tyc, J. Kodet, J. Przybylowicz, L. Holánková, and others).