Jiří, together with his twin brother Otto, graduated from the Prague Dance Conservatory. As one of the winners of the award at the Prix de Lausanne (1992) he was granted a place in John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet, where he became a Principal dancer in 1997. Jiří did not only perform all principal male roles in Neumeier’s performances, he received a special honour – the role of Vaslav Nijinsky in the ballet Nijinsky, created by the legendary maestro especially for him. Among his other roles, for instance that of Arman in Neumeier’s La Dame aux Camélias, was stunning enough to get him an invitation to dance alongside with Aurelie Dupont and Agnes Letestu in Opera de Paris. In 2006 Bubeníček joined Semperoper Dresden Ballet as a Principal dancer. However, coming from the family of touring circus acrobats, he never stayed for too long in the same place. Rather, he collaborated with the ballet companies in New York, Zurich, Vienna, Munchen, Stockholm and Beijing.
In 1999 Jiří Bubeníček started working on independent productions and choreographing. Amongst his most successful works are Unerreichbare Orte for Hamburg Ballet (2005), Le Souffle de l’Esprit for Zurich Ballet (2007) that was also staged for the Vienna Ballet, Toccata for New York City Ballet (2009). More recently he has created highly acclaimed works for the Slovenian National Theatre in Ljubljana (Doctor Zhivago 2016), the Royal Ballet of New Zeland (Piano – the Ballet, 2018), ballet of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (Metropolis, 2018) Royal Sweedish Ballet (The Trial, 2019), ballet of Teatro dell’Opera Roma (Carmen, 2019), Nuovo Balletto di Toscana (Cinderella, 2019), ballet of the La Scala Milan (Canon in D-major, 2021).
During his career, Jiří was awarded many prizes for both dancing and choreographing. Among most notable ones are Prix de Lausane (Prix Especes, 1992), Benois de la Danse (Moskva 2002), Audience Award at the 18th International Competition for Choreographers Hannover for Prisoners of Feelings in 2004., Danza & Danza Prize 2009, Best Duet Prize at St Petersburg Dance Open, Mary Wigman Prize 2013… He was also one of the finalists in the Competition for choreographers Prix Dom Perignon (in 1991 and 2001), and had been voted the best male dancer in Europe by Dance for You magazine in 2014 and Dance Europe magazine in 2015.