From Siberia to Moscow to Tbilisi

The dancers of State Ballet of Georgia did a great job on this reconstructed labor of love, From Siberia to Moscow. The audienced responded warmly as though it were a dance about them, when it was really a dance made in 1876. The costumes and sets alone were dazzling–and took years of preparation. Frank Andersen did a neat thing of inviting these small children (see my last blog) who perform amazing Georgian folk dance into the story (which is about Bournonville and Petipa meeting and way too complicated to explain here). I’ll write my review later, but I wanted to tell you how excited everyone was afterward and how appreciative all the dancers and stagers were. Actually Frank Andersen not only staged and reconstructed but also choreographed, with the help of Dinna Bjoern, Anne Marie Vessel Schlueter and Eva Kloborg. At the reception afterward, somebody gave Frank a traditional Georgian folk-dance coat and he immediately went into action imitating the dance of those fabulous little boys. And all the dancers were singing Georgian songs. Various ambassadors were there, and Nina Ananiahsvili was called the mother of Georgia. Actually I think that’s pretty accurate — in the same way that Alicia Alonso is called the mother, or the queen of Cuba.

I’ll see the second cast tonight, and, darn, will miss the third cast, in which Nina might dance, as her foot injury is healing.