Laurencia is a ballet created by Vakhtang Chabukiani to music by Alexander Krein, based on Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna . Created at a time when "choreodrama" was considered in the Soviet Union the only acceptable form of contemporary ballet, it harks back to a genuine drama, wherein movement was a vehicle for meaning, and dance could serve as divertissement as well as dramatic purpose. At the same time, the story of a peasant revolution was obviously the ideal subject for a Soviet ballet. Vakhtang Chabukiani was one of the first to create a new choreographic language by means of his own particular blend of folk dance and classical dance. He asserted once and for all the importance of male dance, furthering in particular the notion of "heroic" male dance.
Laurencia was premiered on 22 March 1939 at the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre. Soliko Virsaladze designed the scenery and costumes. The leading parts were performed by Natalia Dudinskaya (Laurencia), Vakhtang Chabukiani (Frondoso), Elene Chikvaidze (Jacinta), Mikhail Dudko (Commander) and Tatiana Vecheslova (Pascuala). On 14 November 1948, it was staged at the Tbilisi Z. Paliashvili Opera and Ballet State Theatre. Georgian prima ballerina Vera Tsignadze, famous for her distinguished and unique technical style, performed the title role. In 1956 the ballet was staged at the Bolshoi Theatre. Here Vakhtang Chabukiani partnered Maya Plisetskaya.
Laurencia had great success everywhere it was performed – in the former USSR and other countries. In 1979 Vakhtang Chabukiani again revived the ballet for the Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet theatre. I. Askurava designed the scenery and costumes. Irina Jandieri (Premiere), Marina Alexidze, Natalia Papinashvili, Vladimir Djouloukhadze (Premiere), Rusudan Abashidze, Svetlana Gochiashvili, Valeri Abuladze, Zakharia Amonashvili, Nukri Magalashvili, Nugzar Makhateli, and Sergei Tereschenko performed the leading roles. [1]
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Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam and other composers, it was first presented by the ballet of the Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra in Paris on 23 January 1856. All modern productions of Le Corsaire are derived from the revivals staged by the Ballet Master Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg throughout the mid to late 19th century.
Fuenteovejuna is a play by the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. First published in Madrid in 1619, as part of Docena Parte de las Comedias de Lope de Vega Carpio, the play is believed to have been written between 1612 and 1614. The play is based upon a historical incident that took place in the village of Fuenteovejuna in Castile, in 1476. While under the command of the Order of Calatrava, a commander, Fernán Gómez de Guzmán, mistreated the villagers, who banded together and killed him. When a magistrate sent by King Ferdinand II of Aragon arrived at the village to investigate, the villagers, even under the pain of torture, responded only by saying "Fuenteovejuna did it."
Nina Ananiashvili is a Georgian ballerina and artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia. She has been described by the Daily Telegraph as one of the twelve greatest ballerinas of all time, and in 2002 was named Best Ballerina of the Year by the US Dance Magazine. Ananiashvili has been a prominent fixture of the Soviet, Russian and Georgian ballet scene for decades. Shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain, in 1987 a New York Magazine critic praised her as "the best thing about the Bolshoi's Giselle whether she appeared in the title role or as the queen of the wilis." In 2014, a film of her 1991 performance in Giselle with the Bolshoi ballet was released.
Mansur Kamaletdinov was a Soviet-born ballet dancer, teacher, ballet master and choreographer of classical ballet and classical character dance.
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. The ballet was staged especially for the benefit performance of the Russian Prima ballerina Ekaterina Vazem, who created the principal role of Nikiya. La Bayadère was first presented by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 4 February [O.S. 23 January] 1877. From the first performance the ballet was universally hailed by contemporary critics as one of the choreographer Petipa's supreme masterpieces, particularly the scene from the ballet known as The Kingdom of the Shades, which became one of the most celebrated pieces in all of classical ballet. By the turn of the 20th century, The Kingdom of the Shades scene was regularly extracted from the full-length work as an independent showpiece, and it has remained so to the present day.
Natalia Mikhailovna Dudinskaya was a Soviet prima ballerina who dominated the Kirov Ballet from the 1930s to the 1950s.
La Esmeralda is a ballet in three acts and five scenes, inspired by the 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot to music by Cesare Pugni, with sets by William Grieve and costumes by Mme. Copère.
The 1895 Petipa/Ivanov/Drigo revival of Swan Lake is a famous version of the ballet Swan Lake,, . This is a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky based on an ancient German legend, presented in either four acts, four scenes, three acts, four scenes or, more rarely, in two acts, four scenes. Originally choreographed by Julius Reisinger to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, it was first presented as The Lake of the Swans by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre on 20 February/4 March 1877 in Moscow, Russia. Although the ballet is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies today base their stagings both choreographically and musically on this revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, staged for the Imperial Ballet, first presented on 15 January/27 January 1895, at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia instead of the original version.
Vakhtang Mikheilis dze Chabukiani was a Soviet and Georgian ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher. He is considered to be one of the most influential male ballet dancers of the 20th century, and is noted for creating the choreography of several of the most famous male variations of the classical ballet repertory, for example in Le Corsaire, La Bayadère, and Swan Lake.
Simon (Soliko) Virsaladze was a Georgian and one of the Soviet Union's leading designers of ballet, film and opera. He also worked as collaborator with the founders of Georgian National Ballet company, Iliko Sukhishvili and Nino Ramishvili, in the creation of classic Georgian costumes.
Maria I. Perini was an Italian ballet teacher. In 1916, she opened the first private ballet studio in the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts and went on to teach many of the famous Georgian dancers including Dimitri and Irina Aleksidze, Maria Bauer, Soliko Virsaladze, Nino Ramishvili, Iliko Sukhishvili, Vakhtang Chabukiani, Elene Chikvaidze, Maria Kazinets, and Elene Gvaramadze. Her methods of teaching classical dance laid solid foundations for developing Georgian ballet. She was married to the Polish-Georgian artist Henryk Hryniewski.
Tamaz Vashakidze is an artist, premier dancer of the State Georgian Ballet, choreographer, holder of the Order of Honor of Georgia (2001), founder and awardee of the Chabukiani-Balanchine International Festival of Ballet Art, founder of the New Georgian Ballet Theatre of Modern Dance, holder of Special Award of Balanchine's Family, and founder of the Foundation "Chabukiani-Balanchine".
Ivan Vladimirovich Vasiliev is a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer. He graduated from the Bielorussian Ballet School in 2006.
Irma Nioradze, is a Georgian ballerina and Principal Dancer of the Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet.
Vasili Ivanovich Vainonen, also spelled Vasily (1901-1964), was a renowned Ingrian Soviet choreographer, mainly for the Kirov Ballet, now known as the Mariinsky Ballet, with which he worked from 1930 to 1938.
Mikhail Andreyevich Dudko was a Russian Soviet ballet dancer, born on 31 December [O.S. 18 December] 1902, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, and died on 11 September 1981, Leningrad, USSR.
Lali Kandelaki is a Georgian ballerina with the State Ballet of Georgia.
Gorda is two-act ballet by the Georgian composer David Toradze, first premiered in 1949 at the Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater. Originally performed by prominent Georgian ballet dancers Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vera Tsignadze, Gorda was revived in 2016 by Nina Ananiashvili.
Vladimir Djouloukhadze, or Juluhadze, or Djuluhadze,, born in 1952, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, USSR, is a Georgian ballet dancer, a former principal of the Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi, Ballet Master, teacher, and choreographer.
Vera Varlamovna Tsignadze was a Georgian-Soviet ballet dancer, choreograph and pedagogue. Signadze was the partner of Vakhtang Chabukiani until 1970.