Strains of war mar tune for Georgian ballerina
Nina Ananiashvili was born in Georgia but calls herself a Russian ballerina -- a mixture making for powerful emotions as Georgia`s State Ballet dances "Giselle" at the Edinburgh Festival.
Her 80-strong company left Georgia on August 8, the very day on which Russian forces reacted to a Georgian bid to seize control of the separatist region of South Ossetia.
"I`m Georgian but I am a Russian ballerina," said the 45-year-old former star of the Bolshoi in Moscow, who spent 30 years in Russia before taking the reins at the Georgian national ballet in 2004.
"When I heard about the first incidents, it was a real shock," she told AFP in between performances in which she plays the lead at the annual arts festival in Scotland.
She describes how children performing with the ballet cried before a show shortly after hearing the news, forcing her to reassure them and convince them that they had to keep dancing despite their worries.
"This performance was much more emotional, terrible pictures came to my eyes constantly," says the dark-clad, black-haired dancer.
The production has been well received. "The company helped to kick off the festival with an assured performance of the 19th-century classic," said the Times reviewer, while the Guardian called it "a memorable performance."
"And not only the critics liked it," she said.
"In the second act, when I say goodbye to Albert, I raise my hand to say thank you to God, it was so quiet, like death, nothing moved," before thunderous applause broke out, she said.
"Culture doesn`t have nationality," she added.
The current conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi is "not about people, this is about politics, this should be stopped," she said, condemning the Russian "invasion" of her native land.
"I cannot stay on the Russian side this time," she said.
Born in Tbilisi in 1963, Ananiashvili moved to Moscow at the age of 14 to perfect her ballet technique. She remained there for nearly three decades, and calls her mentor at the Bolshoi, Raisa Struchkova, her "Russian mother."
At her peak she was feted for star performances in the Russian classic ballets "Giselle," "Don Quixote" and "Romeo and Juliet".
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 she danced with companies around the world, notably the Houston ballet.
Then when Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was elected in 2004 he invited her to take control of the State Ballet in Tbilisi. She accepted, while continuing to teach and dance herself.
Seen as close to the pro-Western government, she married the current deputy foreign minister Grigol Vashadze, and at the age of 45 says she feels in top form and far from ready to hang up her ballet pumps.
"I haven`t danced my best ballet yet," she said, adding that she hopes to produce a new show in the near future in which she can use all her talent and experience.
But tears well up in her eyes when she explains that she cannot take her company to Russia, because of visa problems and now even more so because of political tensions between the two countries.
Ananiashvili and the Georgian State Ballet gave two performances of "Giselle" and "Mixed Bill" -- four diverse works with choreography by George Balanchine -- at the Edinburgh International Festival on August 9 and 13.
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