Country of Origin Georgia
Description Founded nearly 200 years ago in the culturally fertile capital city of Tbilisi, the State Ballet of Georgia progressed from a touring destination for A-list nineteenth-century dancers and choreographers—Fokine used it as a choreographic laboratory for his groundbreaking ballets—to the home of the country's first national ballet company and one of the leading companies in the Soviet Union. Known from its inception for a sophisticated marriage of folk dance and classical ballet, the company has soared under the bold artistic direction of ballerina Nina Ananiashvili, an internationally lauded prima ballerina of the Bolshoi and principal guest artist with American Ballet Theatre. She is revered for her purity of line, musicality, and impeccable phrasing, qualities she has imbued in her talented dancers.
The programs include a sensitive rendition of the transcendent Chaconne by Balanchine (also Georgian by birth) and the Kabuki-inspired Dreams about Japan, a seamless merging of traditional Japanese dance elements with the precision of ballet by Bolshoi Ballet Artistic Director Alexei Ratmansky. The troupe's BAM debut also features a new Ratmansky piece, Bizet Variations, and the new work Sagalobeli by San Francisco's inventive choreographer-in-residence (and former Bolshoi principal) Yuri Possokhov. Ananiashvili will perform in both programs.
Identifier 2008s.00895
