State Ballet of Georgia

I went to see a performance of Giselle yesterday at Royce Hall with Joan (ballet teacher) and Peggy (fellow student). This company was rebuilt with the help of Nina Ananiashvilli who is a renowned dancer with ABT and Bolshoi. She is also a native of Georgia (the country in Eurasia, not the state). She performed the role of Giselle last night and was the primary draw. Her dancing is superb, very fluid, clean, beautiful. The rest of the company were very good but needed a final bit of polish (landings were a little hard, feet not pointed all the way through). We all thoroughly enjoyed it though, and Nina got a standing O and many bravos throughout the night. As usual, she was presented with a bouquet of flowers. In addition many audience members gave her single roses. She moved from one side of the stage to the other in her bows (nice gesture to cover the audience) and gave 'Myrtha' a couple of the flowers (nice gesture to acknowledge your fellow performers even though you are far and away the big star).