Some Russian Ballet Faces -- The State Ballet of Georgia

[Buddy]

Some former members of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi are now active with The State Ballet of Georgia, Nina Ananiashvili (formerly Bolshoi, etc), Artistic Director.

Currently associated with the company are Xander Parish (ex-Mariinsky and RB), Laura Fernandez-Gromova (ex Stanislavsky, PoluninInk, and Mariinsky), Oscar Frame (ex-Bolshoi and Astrakhan), Gavriel Heine (former Mariinsky conductor) and others. 

"Our next performance - "Romeo and Juliet" will be held on June 11,12,15 at 19.00.
The leading roles: 11.06 - Nino Samadashvili and Oscar Frame; 12.06 - World Ballet star Xander Parish and Laura Fernandez: 15.06 - Ekaterine Surmava and Andrii Havryliuk. Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre Orchestra will be conducted by guest Conductor Gavriel Heine (USA)."

https://tkt.ge/show/10451/romeo-da-julieta

Also Xander, Laura, Oscar, Anastasia Demidova (ex-Mariinsky), choreographer Ilia Jivoy (ex-Mariinsky) and his wife, Sophia Vartanyan (costumes) are preparing a new work.

A brief video clip of Xander Parish and Laura Fernandez Gromova rehearsing Romeo and Juliet in Tbilisi. 
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CeO6KuGIc2m/?igshid=NmZiMzY2Mjc=   

(Thanks to FionaE at BalletcoForum for all the above)

The company is also scheduled to be at the at the George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, April, 2023. This might be part of a larger tour of the US.(Thanks to Jeannette at BalletcoForum).

https://cfa.calendar.gmu.edu/state-ballet-of-georgia/

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by Buddy

[volcanohunter]

Ananiashvili is Georgian, Parish and Frame are British, Fernandez is Swiss and Heine is American. To lump them all together as somehow representing "Russian" ballet is offensive, especially considering how much Georgian territory is currently occupied by Russia. Georgia has a very old and distinct dancing tradition, and ballerinas like Samadashvili and Surmava don't move like Russian-trained dancers. Their quality is stronger, faster, direct, almost to the point of fierceness, unsentimental and not at all decorative.

[Buddy]

The several that I've seen, Volcanohunter, Nina Ananiashvili, Xander Parish and Gavriel Heine had all been well integrated into and contributed much to the beauty of the Ballet from Russia.  
 

[volcanohunter]

Americans probably wouldn't enjoy being referred to as "colonials," as in the old days. I doubt the State Ballet of Georgia would appreciate being seen as "substitute Russians." It's not a huge company, but it deserves to be perceived on its own merits, especially since Ananiashvili has leveraged her extensive professional contacts in the West, to build a wide-ranging repertoire.

[Buddy]

43 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

Americans probably wouldn't enjoy being referred to as "colonials," as in the old days. I doubt the State Ballet of Georgia would appreciate being seen as "substitute Russians." It's not a huge company, but it deserves to be perceived on its own merits, especially since Ananiashvili has leveraged her extensive professional contacts in the West, to build a wide-ranging repertoire.

You make a good point here, Volcanohunter. I guess that I'm just concentrating on one aspect of the situation because of today's world conditions.

Edited June 2, 2022 by Buddy

[Roberta]

13 hours ago, Buddy said:

You make a good point here, Volcanohunter. I guess that I'm just concentrating on one aspect of the situation because of today's world conditions.

 

Me too, Buddy. I've found the Georgian troupe to adhere primarily to the classic Vaganova style...even when the USA's own Brooklyn Mack (a Kirov Acad of DC grad, by the way) guest-starred in their Don Q a few years back. The Vaganova language and style seems to cross all boundaries, even when certain dancers, like their ex-prima, Lali Kandelaki, may be more flamboyant than others.

Thanks too, Buddy, for the heads-up on the company's upcoming visit to the DC area. Quite convenient for me! I checked the George Mason arts-series website and the Georgian troupe is scheduled to dance a mixed bill - "Mostly B" - that includes Balanchine's Serenade, among others.

Calendar | Center for the Arts (gmu.edu)  - scroll down to April 15

Next spring should see a number of visits by companies 'in the Russian style but not-quite-Russia'; for ex, I read elsewhere that the Ukrainian National Ballet (the big one based in Kyiv) is planning to perform in the NYC area in early Jan 2023. So we in North America can have our fill of Not-Quite-Russian ballet soon. No disrespect intended but spotlighting ex-USSR-territory ballet companies seems to be good marketing. These are, for the most part, very fine companies, with interesting repertoires.

[maps]

22 hours ago, Roberta said:

...Thanks too, Buddy, for the heads-up on the company's upcoming visit to the DC area. Quite convenient for me! I checked the George Mason arts-series website and the Georgian troupe is scheduled to dance a mixed bill - "Mostly B" - that includes Balanchine's Serenade, among others.

Calendar | Center for the Arts (gmu.edu)  - scroll down to April 15...

 

Thanks for the GMU Georgia performance heads-up.  Fine mixed bill: Serenade – Balanchine
Concerto Barocco – Balanchine, Sagalobeli – Possokhov.  Same for The Washington Ballet at Wolf Trap: Serenade – Balanchine, Werner Sonata – Farley (originally filmed at Wolf Trap), Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux – Balanchine, B1 – Ndlovu.

My favorite Skorik performance was on a mixed bill- 2015 KC Paquita Grand Pas.  That was also the year where I realized how much I love Spectre without the rose costume.

Edited June 4, 2022 by maps
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[Buddy]

4 hours ago, Roberta said:

The Vaganova language and style seems to cross all boundaries, even when certain dancers, like their ex-prima, Lali Kandelaki, may be more flamboyant than others.

 

This seems like a good and healthy perception, Roberta, that I too was thinking about. Art and creativity do cross all sorts of boundaries with all sorts of interconnections and this can bring folks everywhere together in a good and healthy way. 

Volcanohunter seems quite right in noting that one group might not want to be seen as a stand-in for another, but there also seems to be nothing wrong with being part of a broader identity if it adds to the quality and value of that group.  

If The State Ballet of Georgia does tour other parts of the US I would look forward to seeing it. And I also greatly look forward to when everyone can once again see all the world's finest companies. 

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Buddy
typo correction

[volcanohunter]

I hope the Kennedy Center and other presenters use the opportunity to discover that the world's finest ballet does not consist of hoary Soviet-era productions from St. Petersburg, but rather the Royal Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the National Ballet of Japan, the Staatsballett Berlin, the Dutch National Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, the Hamburg Ballet, the Dresden Semperoper Ballet and many others, which are actually moving the art form forward.

[Buddy]

I think about this one a lot as well, Volcanohunter.

Are the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi stuck back in time ?  Yet, somehow, being as great as they are, for me, it doesn't really seem to matter. They set a standard of excellence in performance ability. Mozart's creativity is definitely frozen in time, but....

We aren't talking about the exact same thing, I realise, but these are some of my feelings about 'moving forward.'

Edited June 3, 2022 by Buddy