Ballerina in the city

I was once told that my hometown Tbilisi is associated with a song, not a dance. Maybe that’s because there are many songs about Tbilisi, some of which have become popular, and there are no dances.

I felt like filling that gap and began thinking about what kind of dance could suit Tbilisi.
It is an ancient city of course, but it remains light, flexible, gracious - and quite modern in many ways. Georgian folklore dances are good, but ethnically neutral dances could be a better fit.

And so I decided to stage a dance for Tbilisi. I am not a choreographer, but I knew good dancers and I had a good camera; these two factors immediately turned a ridiculous idea into a completely realistic plan.

I called a wonderful Georgian dancer Nutsa Chekurashvili and she agreed to help me. Nutsa is a soloist of the Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet Theater.

One early August morning, we met with Nutsa in the ancient center of Tbilisi and tried to “dance” this city. You are now watching the result of this duet of ours 😃

I took these pictures in 2018. August is the time for summer vacations, and Tbilisi generally is quite deserted at this time. That was important for our planned photo shoot, since Tbilisi people are extremely curious and sociable, and this could interfere with the work. We started working around 7am and soon it turned out it wasn't early enough - we obviously attracted the attention of a few gentlemen who didn't mind having a small talk with a ballerina and a woman with a camera.

The street sweepers were the most involved spectators. They stopped sweeping and watched, leaning on their broomsticks. Another appreciative audience were the vendors of matsoni (a kind of homemade Georgian yogurt, brought for sale by the farmers). The sleepy owners of souvenir shops looked very intrigued and ready to interact too. I decided to make another photo shoot with a ballerina communicating with all these city people. Don’t you think it could be fun?

This is not the only street photo shoot with a ballerina in Tbilisi. That same summer, I photographed an aspiring dancer named Anya. I will be glad to show those photos to you too.

I love ballet, but my real passion is the other side of it, not what shines on the stage, and not even what remains behind the scenes, but what happens in the rehearsal rooms, the whole routine of this work. But this is a topic for a separate post, and if you are interested in seeing my view of ballet, I will be glad to share it with you too.