Why don't boys do ballet? Because their fathers think that it’s a girl thing and that men have no business doing it,” said Nino Ananiashvili, the Artistic Director of Georgia’s state ballet troupe.
Men are few, strong women are many
Once upon a time in Georgia, ballet used to be viewed as a manly occupation. It was in the 1930s when a prominent Soviet performer and Georgian ballet icon Vakhtang Chabukiani was appointed as head of the Tbilisi school of choreography.
“There was quite a boom at the time, as all parents seemed to want their sons to become ballet dancers,” said Nino Ananiashvili.
Today, foreigners have had to be brought in to make up the deficit of male dancers in Georgian ballet. Presently, there are quite a number of them in the state troupe. Some of them have come from countries where being a male ballet dancer is seen as very prestigious.
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“Cuba or Spain – ballet is certainly not considered to be 'feminine' in those countries, and it’s not always because of their particular love of art that parents there get their sons enrolled in ballet schools. Rather, they do so because it’s a pragmatic thing to do: by the time their sons come of age, they will have gained a profession.”
“Ballet is work that is hard as hell, which is why, perhaps, there are so many women in it. Women are stronger than men. Psychologically at least.”
“Ballet is work that is hard as hell, which is why, perhaps, there are so many women in it. Women are stronger than men. Psychologically at least.”
Nutsa Chekurashvili and Yonen Takano, soloists in Georgia’s state ballet, rehearsing under the supervision of tutors Anatoly Kucheryuk and Irina Jandieri.
A story of how an acclaimed prima ballerina saved the day
Nino Ananiashvili came back to Georgia after she’d spent decades abroad building a successful career as a world-class dancer: at different times, she’d been a soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre, the Royal Danish Ballet, London’s Royal Ballet, Rome Opera, La Scala, Royal Swedish Ballet, Göteborg Ballet, Monte-Carlo Ballet, the national ballets of Norway, Finland, Portugal and many others.
“In 2004, [the now ex president of Georgia] Mikheil Saakashvili invited me to come back, and I did. It was no easy decision to make, as it meant I would have to rebuild my life from scratch. And it was really hard at first, as I had neither funds, nor cadres to rely on. Many performers had left Tbilisi, and those who stayed – and I think they are nothing short of heroes - gave themselves up to salvaging the theatre.”
“At the time [late 1990s – early 2000s], many Georgians didn’t even know there was a theatre of opera and ballet in Tbilisi. In particular, young people would be taken aback when they heard about it. And it was not surprising at all, [what with the country having just started to emerge from] a decade of war, hunger and power outages.”
“The theater was in a poor state at the time. The roof leaked so much that when it rained outside it was raining inside on the stage as well. The heating system would only be turned on during performances, but it did little to make the terrible cold more tolerable. Only performers who could afford to buy pointe shoes would dance on the stage. They were, effectively, a luxury item.”
“[The authorities] provided me with a certain budget. I brought together a group of performers and told them: we’ll have to work hard, flat out, otherwise we won’t be able to achieve anything; we’ll spend nights, as well as days, rehearsing if necessary.”
“Compromises were out of question if [the theatre] was to be brought back to life – it was a matter of choosing between bringing it on par with the likes of the Bolshoi Theatre and Mariinka or putting up with an existence as some bottom-of-the-league philharmonic society. I chose the former.”
“My friends were very supportive, and I had connections that helped. It was unprecedented. It’s safe to say that the whole ballet world rallied around the Tbilisi Theatre.”
“Looking back, I can’t believe we put on 27 shows in the first three years! Can you imagine how hard we worked?!”
“The money we spent on these 27 shows would hardly be enough to put on five performances today.”
“Don’t take it as if I am complaining. We’ve got some funds allocated from the state budget, and there are some private sponsors who’ve been supporting us. We are very grateful to all of them. But the patronage of art is a culture that has yet to be developed in Georgia.”
“It’s my thirteenth season in Tbilisi. I spent many years abroad, but I always missed home very much.”
“One event that had a crucial shaping influence on my professional biography was, perhaps, my moving [from Tbilisi] to Moscow. I was still a child then, and leaving my parents was a traumatic experience. I only managed to do it thanks to my grandmother who left everything she had behind to accompany me. She helped me a lot, even though she was not a ballerina herself.”
“Of course, it’s very sad when, for some reason or other, a ballerina fails to make a career. But one doesn’t have to be able to dance to love ballet. She may assert herself in some other capacity in the theatre. I am sure of that.”
Text and photos: Diana Petriashvili, Russian Language News Exchange Project, specially for JAMnews