Cal Performances | Dance | Nina Ananiashvili & The State Ballet of Georgia

Patron Information

Nina Ananiashvili &
the State Ballet of Georgia
Giselle
Mixed Repertory
with Berkeley Symphony Orchestra

"Nina Ananiashvili has never failed to light up the stage. The star presence she brings...invariably fills every scene with drama," says the New York Times of the celebrated Bolshoi and American Ballet Theatre dancer. Considered by many to be the most important ballerina of her generation, Ananiashvili is also making international dance headlines these days for her bold artistic direction of a new world-class ballet company: the State Ballet of Georgia. Posing a serious challenge to Moscow's traditional artistic dominance in dance, the ensemble makes its West Coast debut at Cal Performances on the heels of its American debut at the Spoleto Festival this past summer and before moving on to appear at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Georgian-born Ananiashvili herself to perform the title role in one of the most beloved ballets of all time, Giselle (Feb 16 only). Plus, she and the company will also perform in a separate mixed repertory program featuring the American premiere of a new ballet by Yuri Possokhov, San Francisco Ballet's choreographer-in-residence (and former Bolshoi principal); the American premiere of a new work by the Bolshoi's Aleksei Ratmansky; and two classic works by another Georgian-born ballet legend: George Balanchine.

Program A (Thu): Possokhov/Sagalobeli, set to Georgian traditional music (American premiere), featuring Nina Ananiashvili; Balanchine/Duo Concertant, set to Stravinsky; Chaconne, set to Gluck; Ratmansky/American premiere of new work, set to Bizet, featuring Nina Ananiashvili
Program B (Fri-Sun): Giselle featuring Nina Ananiashvili (Feb 16)

Program Notes
Program notes are available online. [PDF]

Video Clips
( Real One Player)

Don Quixote

* Clips listed here are representative of the artists, but may be different than what are being played as part of the Cal Performances program

Education/Community Events
Osher Life Long Learning - Dance Interest Group
Fridays, February 15 and March 28, 5:00 - 6:30 PM
University Hall, Room 41-BZ
Paul Parish will facilitate a dance interest group with two conversations set for this winter to coincide with two touring productions at Cal Performances: Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia in Giselle (Feb. 14-17) as well as the Tchaikvosky Perm Ballet and Orchestra in Natalia Makarova's choreographed Swan Lake (March 28-30).
Paul's focus will be on traditional Russian ballet and how dance tells a story. He writes: "Classical ballet tells a story by letting you see it. The music governs the pace and mood; the scenery, costumes, and lighting reveal what kind of world we're in and who we're looking at. Their faces, postures, actions and gestures tell you what's happening. Ballet excels in its expression of the emotions where the dancing reveals the dancer's feelings intimately and lets them unfold as it were in slow motion."
Paul Parish, former Rhodes Scholar, studied English literature at Oxford and Berkeley before turning his attention to full-time to dance. He writes for Ballet Review in New York, Ballet/Tanz in Berlin, and locally for San Francisco Magazine and the Bay Area Reporter. He has written for The New Yorker and for Dance Magazine, and has taught dance criticism at the University of California's Berkeley and Santa Cruz campuses. (More information).