Tbilisi Ballet Festival to begin on June 23
By Keti Donadze
Wednesday, June 13
The second annual Tbilisi Ballet Festival will begin on June 23 and last until July 1.
Artistic Director of Festival is Georgian ballerina - Nino Ananiashvili.
“Dance in general and ballet in particular are the most emotional and honest art forms: one cannot lie when words are not involved. I do not remember, who said this, but the person was right: ”life without dance is a mistake”.
That is why we are going to dance a lot from June 23 to July 1 of 2018,” reads the statement by Nino Ananiashvili.
Nederlands Dans Theater 2, SpellBound Contemporary Ballet from Rome, Nino Ananiashvili, Amandine Albisson and Jeremy-loup Quer of the Paris Opera, and Marcelo Gomes and Opera and Ballet Theatre will participate in the festival.
Medhi Walerski’s ballet ‘Orawa’ (Premiere), ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ will be presented.
Nederlands Dans Theatre 2 Company will bring choreography by some of the ballet masters to the festival.
Comprised of young dancers, often being cast in avant-garde works, the group will bring to Tbilisi five productions by Sol Leon, Paul Lightfoot, Marco Goecke and Hans van Manen in the ballets Sad Case, Subtle Dust, Wir sagen uns Dunkles, Midnight Raga and Short Cut.
Italy’s SpellBound Contemporary Ballet will be involved in the festival’s week-long program with Formami and Rossini Overtures - by their founder Mauro Astolfi. Widely recognized in Italy, SpellBound will mark a quarter century since their founding next year.
Another group showcasing its talents to visitors of the festival will be the State Ballet of Georgia, the country’s principal classical dance collective with the festival hosted at their home venue, the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre.
Georgia’s famous ballet dancer, Nino Ananiashvili will make a rare appearance, dancing the lead in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ alongside with Marcelo Gomes with the State Ballet troupe.
The festival closing will feature a gala performance of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’, which will feature Nutsa Chekurashvili, Nino Samadashvili, Ekaterine Surmava and Ruika Yokoyama from the State Ballet of Georgia, while the Opera National de Paris troupe will be represented by Amandine Albisson and Jeremy-Loup Quer.
The Tbilisi Ballet Festival was founded in 2017.
Netherlands Dance Theater visited Tbilisi in 2017 for the first time.
The festival is supported by TBC Bank, Check in Georgia, Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Ministry of Culture of Georgia, Tbilisi City Hall, Georgian National Tourism Administration, Embassy of Italy in Georgia, Netherlands Embassy in Georgia, SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers), Ministry of Heritage and Culture (MiBACT, Italy), etc.
