Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet to end season with premiere of Georgian princess story

A premiere following the story of a medieval Georgian princess married to a Seljuk sultan will celebrate the conclusion of the first season of the Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet next week.

The young troupe will present Gurji-Khatun, a 2014 production by their artistic director Mariam Aleksidze, to round off their successful debut on the local scene.

With company principal Natia Bunturi playing the main character, the ballet will showcase the stage adaptation of a popular novel by Georgian author Dato Turashvili.

Choreographer Mariam Aleksidze (L) rehearsing with company dancer Nina Gogua. Photo: Tamar Jibuti Photography.

Through the feelings, emotions, relationships and changes in the mood of the chorus and the four main protagonists, by fusing two cultures and different worlds, Mariam Aleksidze’s contemporary ballet choreography tells the story full of love and drama”, said a preview by the company.

Turashvili’s 2011 work Gurji-Khatuni was inspired by the true story of a 13th century Georgian princess who reportedly became the first woman whose portrait was carved on a coin produced in the muslim Seljuk Empire.

The granddaughter of Georgia’s famed Queen Tamar, the princess was given the same name but is better known with her Turkish name Gurcu Hatun and its Georgianised version Gurji-Khatuni.

Aged 13, she became subject of a political marriage to Sultan of Rum Kaykhusraw II, with rich historical notes preserved on her in Turkish historical sources.

Dancers Natia Bunturi and Nina Gogua rehearse the ballet ahead of the premiere. Photo: Tamar Jibuti Photography.

Adapted for stage production by Aleksidze, the ballet will feature music by Josef Bardanashvili and stage design by Ana Kalatozishvili on the Grand Stage of the Tbilisi venue on July 4.

First staged in 2014, the work was created by the young choreographer within the project Fantasia on the Theme of Georgian Folklore.

The project is an initiative by the Giorgi Aleksidze Foundation for the Development of Contemporary Choreography, named after the late choreographer and father of Mariam Aleksidze.

Aleksidze (second from left) and author Dato Turashvili (third from left) with the staging team of ‘Gurji-Khatun’ at the 2014 premiere of the ballet. Photo: Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet.

Gurji-Khatun was also performed for the audience of the 2015 Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre, a year before the Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet was launched in the capital.

The premiere of the ballet at the troupe will mark the conclusion of their 2016-2017 season, during which the company hosted their audience for a variety of dance productions. 

A major part of the troupe's current repertoire represents stagings of choreographic ideas and ballets by Giorgi Aleksidze, who worked as artistic director of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre ballet troupe.