Ballet dancer Nino Samadashvili set for Belarus appearance in ’Laurencia’

Young Georgian dancer Nino Samadashvili will lead a performance of the classical ballet Laurencia at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus, dancing the title role in the work first staged by Georgia's famed dancer and choreographer Vakhtang Chabukiani.

Samadashvili, a leading soloist of the State Ballet of Georgia, will be cast in the role in what will mark her return to the Belarusian audience which got a glimpse of her talent earlier this year.

Belarusian ballet admirers could not but remember the graceful ballerina from Georgia. This year Nino Samadashvili delighted the audience with her role of Odette/Odile [...] during the international festival Ballet Summer at the Bolshoi", noted the theatre's preview of Laurencia.

The Georgian dancer has performed in the classical ballet in Tbilisi. Photo: State Ballet of Georgia.

Samadashvili's appearance will come at the principal theatre venue in Minsk on November 24, with the production also showcasing set design by Georgian theatre designer David Monavardisashvili.

Based on score by Soviet composer Alexander Krein, Laurencia was first staged by Chabukiani in Russia in 1939 and in Tbilisi in 1948.

Themed on the play Fuente Ovejuna by Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, the ballet became absent from the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre repertory over the subsequent decades.

It was restored under the guidance of State Ballet of Georgia artistic director Nina Ananiashvili after the famed dancer assumed her position at the company in 2004.

Samadashvili has danced as leading soloist of the State Ballet of Georgia since 2014. Photo: State Ballet of Georgia.

The Belarus theatre will host Ananiashvili's redaction of the work, which was also performed in Georgia's capital last week by a cast of celebrated Georgian and foreign dancers.

Samadashvili has danced at the State Ballet of Georgia as leading soloist since 2014. She joined the troupe in 2011 after graduating from Tbilisi's State School of Ballet Art, named after Chabukiani.

She has danced title roles in ballet classics including Giselle and The Nutcracker as well as neoclassical and contemporary productions including Mozartiana, Symphony in C and Second Before the Ground.

The young dancer has been awarded the Grand Prix of the International Ballet Competition Rigas Pavasaris in Latvia in 2013.