You have to feel for a company living in the shadow of the Kirov and the Bolshoi. But not every company needs to be the Kirov — or City Ballet, or Paris Opera Ballet — and so often that’s where these smaller companies trip up. The State Ballet of Georgia looked fairly solid in the most classical part of the program, the Don Quixote Grand Divertissement. They didn’t look very interested in what they were doing, however, and it wasn’t all that interesting to watch, though I was relieved to see that the men could jump. If the dancers can learn to put the qualities they displayed in Second Before the Ground — breathing, reaching, dancing — into their Balanchine (and into Petipa, if they feel they must), then we’ll have something worthwhile rather than just another ballet company. And wouldn’t it be great to see Ananiashvili really dancing again? I think the company needs a José Limón work added to the repertoire, and I know just the long limbs that could eat up that expansive movement.
Topics:
Dance
, Entertainment, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Natalia Makarova, More 
, Entertainment, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Natalia Makarova, Bolshoi Ballet, Houston Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Communism, Dance, Performing Arts, Don Quixote, Less 
