"[Ananiashvili is] arguably the most important ballerina
of her generation."
—The Boston Herald
NINA ANANIASHVILI AND THE STATE BALLET OF GEORGIA
- FEATURING PRINCIPAL OF THE BOLSHOI BALLET
SERGEI FILIN
Program A (see below for details)
Feb 27 & 29 at 7:30pm
Running Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
All works performed to live music
Program B (see below for details)
Mar 1 at 7:30pm; Mar 2 at 3pm
Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
All works performed to live music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
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.
Duo Concertant (Programs A&B)
Choreography by George Balanchine
Music by Igor Stravinsky
Bizet Variations (Programs A&B)
(NY Premiere)
Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
Music: Chromatic Variations by Georges Bizet
Sagalobeli (Program A&B)
(NY Premiere)
Choreography by Yuri Possokhov
Traditional Georgian music performed by the Sagalobeli Ensemble
Chaconne (Program A)
Music by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Choreography by George Balanchine
Featuring the Orchestra of the Tbilisi Theatre of Opera and Ballet
Dreams about Japan (Program B)
(NY Premiere)
Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
Music by Georges Bizet
Music by L. Eto, N. Yamaguchi, A. Tosha
Featuring percussionists from the Tbilisi Theatre of Opera and Ballet
Photo of Nina Ananiashvili by Kei Uesugi