Tbilisi Ballet Festival to host Nederlands Dans Theater 2, guest stars and State Ballet of Georgia

Stars of the international classical dance, a unique Dutch troupe and Georgia's premier state ballet company will all showcase their talents in front of the local and visiting audience at the inaugural Tbilisi Ballet Festival launching on Wednesday.

Marking the start of the annual celebration in the city, the event will be the first opportunity for ballet enthusiasts in Georgia to see artists of Nederlands Dans Theater 2 perform contemporary productions in the capital.

In addition, the program of the festival will feature performers from Staatsballett Berlin, Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow and Polish National Ballet.

Georgian dancers pursuing their careers abroad and artists of the State Ballet of Georgia will round off the roster for the maiden festival edition.

An initiative by famous dancer and State Ballet of Georgia artistic director Nina Ananiashvili, the festival will take advantage of the recent renovation and technical upgrade of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre.

Speaking in preview of the event, Ananiashvili said the idea of the festival was to host one select foreign dance company as well as individual dancers from international troupes every year. The festival will also seek to present productions from annual performance seasons of the State Ballet of Georgia.

[The festival will be a place for] the life, emotion, entertainment, thought and perception that you can set yourself free from daily problems for one evening and spend it in a beautiful theatre, watching a beautiful show", she told the Georgian Public Broadcaster ahead of the opening.

Boston Ballet principal Lasha Khozashvili and State Ballet of Georgia leading soloist Lali Kandelaki in a dress rehearsal for 'Laurencia'. Photo: State Ballet of Georgia.

The event will launch with a performance of Laurencia, a 1939 ballet by founder of Georgian professional classical dance Vakhtang Chabukiani. The lost work was recently restored scene-by-scene by Ananiashvili and her team.

I would like our contemporary audience to see the signature Chabukiani style [in the restored work] and view it through a modern lens", said Ananiashvili in her interview with the GPB.

State Ballet of Georgia leading soloist Lali Kandelaki will be partnered by Boston Ballet principal Lasha Khozashvili, a former dancer of the Tbilisi company, for the show.

Khozashvili told Imedi TV reporters he was "extremely happy" for the one-off return to the stage of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre, where he danced until he left for the prominent American troupe in 2010.

The highlight of the festival will be the appearance of Nederlands Dans Theater 2, a internationally acclaimed Dutch troupe known for its ground-breaking contemporary productions by some of the most sought-after international choreographers.

Organisers said the company would present "two distinctive programs" of five ballets including mutual comfort by Edward Clug.

Dancers perform in 'Cacti' by Alexander Ekman. Photo: alexekman.com.

The 2015 work "led to rave reviews and thus marked [Clug's] breakthrough in the Netherlands", said the Hague-based company.

[Clug's] work leans towards emphasising a personal experience that arises from the process of creation that is led by illuminating human contradictions, imparting surprising moments of beauty and spontaneous irony", read a summary on the Romania-born choreographer by NDT.

The NDT2 program will also feature the work Cacti by Alexander Ekman, which a review in Evening Standard said "mocks pretentious artspeak and the often unfathomable qualities of contemporary dance".

Dancers of the company will also engage the Tbilisi audience with the language of dance in Solo by Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen.

[Solo is] a euphoric relay race in which the tip-tilted turns and jumps of its three male soloists appear all the more virtuosic for their rigorous timekeeping with Bach's accompanying score", said a 2011 review of the piece by The Guardian.

The young artists of the feeder company for Nederlands Dans Theater 1 will also perform in Sleight of Hand by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot as well as I New Then by Johan Inger.

Staatsballett Berlin principal dancers Elisa Carrillo Cabrera and Mikhail Kaniskin will dance in the closing gala of the festival. Photo: Bettina Stoess.

The contemporary performances of NDT2 will be complimented by classical ballets from invited dancers and artists of the State Ballet of Georgia over the remaining shows of the festival.

Bolshoi Ballet principal dancers Ekaterina Krysanova and Vladislav Lantratov will portray the leading roles in the famed classic Don Quixote.

Their performance will be followed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky's masterpiece Swan Lake, with Polish National Ballet first soloists Chinara Alizade and Vladimir Yaroshenko seeking to leave an impression on festival-goers.

A grand gala involving over a dozen artists from six foreign and Georgian companies will close the festival on July 2.

The gala program will include appearances by another Bolshoi principal Alexander Volchkov, Staatsballett Berlin principal dancers Elisa Carrillo Cabrera and Mikhail Kaniskin, Georgian artists of the Chicago Joffrey Ballet Victoria Jaiani and Temur Suluashvili as well as soloists of the State Ballet of Georgia.

In addition to guest performers, the festival will also feature Russian conductor Alevtina Ioffe, who will lead the orchestra of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre during the shows.