Director of the Ballet of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad

Aja Jung, born in Belgrade in 1972, is a renowned ballet dancer, choreographer, and cultural leader. She trained at the State Ballet School in Belgrade and received a full scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, where she also attended programs at Juilliard, Carnegie Hall’s Neubert Ballet Institute, and the Broadway Dance Center. She later performed in the musical *Starlight Express* in Germany before launching a freelance career in Belgrade, creating and performing several major dance productions worldwide.

From 1994 to 1999, she served as UNESCO’s Ambassador for Dance, organizing over 100 dance events to promote non-verbal heritage and performing arts. In 2010, she became Vice President of the European Section of the World Dance Alliance and has served on the juries of prestigious international ballet competitions.

She founded the *Belgrade Dance Festival* in 2003, which has grown into one of Europe’s leading dance festivals, attracting top ballet and contemporary dance companies. The festival has received international recognition, including support from UNESCO and the EU, and coverage from major global media outlets.

As director of the *National Dance Foundation*, established in 2009, she launched Serbia’s first private international ballet school and organized numerous dance education initiatives. In 2017, she was instrumental in the reopening of the Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Arts and played a key role in presenting Marina Abramović’s first exhibition in Serbia.

Aja Jung has been honored with prestigious awards, including the French *Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature* (2016) and Italy’s *Order of the Italian Star* (2018). She was appointed director of the International Ballet Competition at Teatro Duse in Bologna (2023) and, in November 2024, became the director of the Ballet of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad.