Nina Ananiashvili on leading the State Ballet of Georgia to success

In 2004, the Bolshoi prima ballerina, Nina Ananiashvili, was performing as a guest principal with American Ballet Theatre in New York when she received a request to immediately meet with the newly elected President of the Republic of Georgia, Mikheil Saakhashvili, back in her home town of Tbilisi. She had no idea why he had summoned her – and under contract to perform several advertised performances, it would be two months before she met him. When he offered her the job of artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia, with the added request of starting the job immediately, she was genuinely surprised. She accepted the challenge, despite having no experience. This August, 20 years later, Ananiashvili brings her acclaimed dancers to perform in London for the first time in the company’s 175-year history.

Speaking with her online from her home in Tbilisi, Ananiashvili laughs as she remembers her reply to the President. “It was a big shock. I never expected it, but I saw that I was needed to help my country and I wanted to do that. I had danced all over the world; I was still dancing and enjoying it, but when I returned, I realised that I needed to help not only my country, but especially the ballet company, to restore its earlier successes.

“The previous 13 years had seen a very difficult situation in Georgia politically, physically and financially. There had been a war and there had been very hard times for all Georgians, but especially for the dancers. The theatre was closed as it was damaged. There was no water, no showers, no lighting, dusty and dirty studios and very little work. Food was in very short supply and transport to the theatre was mainly on foot. This meant the dancers had no way of rehearsing properly. So I agreed to take the job.”

I suggest that it must have been a dramatic change from being a prima ballerina – at the top of an internationally established company – to being an administrator in charge of running every aspect of a large performing arts organisation. She tells me how she coped. “When I came back, I spoke with the President, saying if I were to take the role of director, I would need to have my own administration for the ballet company. I wanted proper salaries for the dancers and as I planned to do some new productions, I needed to know that the money would be guaranteed at least two years ahead. The government agreed.

“I told them that they would see a big difference within three years – so we started working. At the end of those three years, we bravely set off on tour to the Spoleto Festival in America, where we could have been heavily criticised if our company had not been successful. But,” she continues with a big smile, “we got good reviews!”

Nina Ananiashvili started her artistic life at the age of nine as Junior Figure Skating Champion of Georgia, where her naturally graceful performance led her to study ballet, first at the State Choreographic School of Georgia and then, aged 13, to the Moscow Choreographic School where she quickly rose to the top of her class. She also gained great success in international ballet competitions, and upon graduation in 1981, joined the Bolshoi Ballet. 

She swiftly became one of the most in-demand ballerinas of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, first as a Bolshoi prima ballerina, then as a much-admired guest in companies all over the world. With immaculate technique, breath-taking bravura and dramatic performances that showed off a high jump, her delicate footwork in Swan Lake was contrasted by strong and feisty performances in Don Quixote. She thrilled audiences world-wide.

“On that first morning in Tbilisi,” she continues, “I told the company my plans, that I would be continuing to dance on stage with them and would cut my overseas guest appearances to concentrate on rebuilding the company. I told them that if we wanted to be a world-class company that we had to start now. But there was a problem. We would have no funding for the first two months and that meant no pay! It was a shock, but everyone wanted the company to succeed. We all worked hard in those early years. As I’d had such wonderful dedicated coaching from Raisa Struchkova and Marina Semyonova all the years I was with the Bolshoi Ballet, I wanted to pass on their incredibly detailed teaching to my dancers. In that first year we did five new productions, which people had initially said could not be done.”

She continues animatedly, “I also invited guests, my partners from different companies from around the world, to perform with us. We staged works by Alexei Ratmansky, Yuri Possokhov, Trey McIntyre, Frederick Ashton and over ten of George Balanchine’s ballets. He was Georgian by birth”, she adds proudly. “We also have a new work by Jiří Kylián which we will be performing in Dublin in the autumn. We have 90 productions in our repertoire now – full-length ballets and one-act works – which makes me very pleased. We have just premiered a new classic, La Bayadère, re-staged by my former dance partner, Alexei Fadeyechev. I am so proud of this production and it has proved a big success.”

I’m curious to know how many of the dancers are from Georgia. “We have 72 dancers in the company at present and we will be bringing 65 to London,” she tells me. “All except twelve are Georgian – the others come from Japan, Turkey, Italy and Ukraine. Georgian people like ballet and our performances are always well attended. Our ticket prices are not high.”

I ask her what makes the company unique. Ananiashvili takes a moment. “Well, we have a history that is unique. Ballet in Georgia is based on both the Italian and Russian schools, which combine with our national Georgian identity of beauty and spirit. Ballet was first danced here in Tbilisi in 1851, and the first Georgian company was created by Maria Perini, an Italian dancer, a pupil of Enrico Cecchetti, so there is the Italian base. One of her pupils was Georgian, Vakhtang Chabukiani, who later studied the Vaganova technique in Leningrad and became one of the greatest ever exponents of male dancing. He finally returned to Tbilisi and actually taught me in my early days at the school. 

“Today I am also director of the ballet school,” Ananiashvili continues, “but we don’t have enough studio space and, as we have no dormitories, we cannot have young dancers from abroad studying here at the moment. Yes, the school has produced many famous dancers including Irma Nioradze, Igor Zelensky, Elena Glurjidze, David and Maia Makhateli, and recently, the wonderful dancer Giorgi Potskhishvili, but they have joined companies abroad. However, they still demonstrate Georgian pride in their dancing and teaching, as does my company today. I think you will admire the dancers we are bringing to London this summer.”

Ananiashvili will always be remembered for her exceptional performances as Odette/Odile. She was just 22 when she performed the ballet for the first time on a Bolshoi tour to Hamburg, and received a 26-minute ovation. I ask her what London audiences can expect from the company’s performances of Swan Lake. “This ballet is very special to me as it was the first I danced as a Bolshoi ballerina,” she tells me. “And then, my last time was with American Ballet Theatre in 2009, at the end of 16 seasons dancing as guest prima ballerina with them.

“Our Swan Lake, choreographed by Alexei Fadeyechev, will certainly show the quality and level of our company today and its Georgian spirit. We are born with singing and dancing in our blood, and it shows in our movements. I’m especially proud of our corps de ballet who love what they are doing. Yes, I know there is a lot of competition and comparison of Swan Lake productions, as nearly every company performs it, but I hope that you will see different qualities in our production. We are very excited about showing it to you all.”

The State Ballet of Georgia performs Swan Lake at the London Coliseum from 28th August to 8th September.