Nina Ananiashvili
Encyclopedia
Georgians
The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....
ballerina
Ballerina
A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
and artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia
State Ballet of Georgia
The State Ballet of Georgia is the ballet company of the Tbilisi Z. Paliashvilil Opera and Ballet State Theatre. Nina Ananiashvili has been artistic director since 2004. Its repertory includes works by Ashton, Balanchine, Bournonville, Kylián, Ratmansky, Possokhov, McIntyre and Welch...
.
Career
She was born in TbilisiTbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, to Gedevan Ananiashvili and Leah Gogolashvili in 1963 and has two brothers. She began her training in Georgia in 1969 when she entered the Georgia State Choreographic Institute (prior to that, she was practising figure skating
Figure skating
Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
and had become a Georgian State champion in the junior division). In 1976 she entered the Moscow Choreographic Institute where her main teacher was Natalia Zolotova. In 1980, she made her stage debut in a school production of Coppelia. She graduated and entered the Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Ballet
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...
in 1981. In 1983 she was promoted to the rank of soloist and performed in her native Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
as a professional for the first time. Eventually she rose to become a prima ballerina. She, along with Andris Liepa, was the first Soviet dancer to appear as a guest performer with the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
in 1988 (she had danced in "Raymonda Variations", "Apollo" and "Symphony in C" there). She became a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
in 1993, and in 1999 she joined the Houston Ballet
Houston Ballet
The Houston Ballet, operated by the Houston Ballet Foundation, is the fourth-largest professional ballet company in the United States, based in Houston, Texas. The foundation also maintains a ballet academy, the Ben Stevenson Academy, which trains more than half of the company's dancers...
with that same rank.
During her career she had performed in many ballet theaters in various countries (in most of the places she performed as a guest artist): Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Hungary Italy, Japan, Monaco, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. She was permitted to accept guest performances outside the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
since 1986 due to the policies of Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
(see Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
and Glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
).
Varna
Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...
, Bulgaria, in 1981 she and Andris Liepa won Grand Prix in the junior group of the 4th International Ballet Competition in Moscow (Andris Liepa received the Gold Medal there), in 1985 she won the Gold Medal in the senior group at the 5th International Ballet Competition in Moscow, in 1986 she and Andris Liepa were awarded the Grand Prix at the 3rd USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, Mississippi, United States. Since September 2004, she has been artistic director of the National Ballet Ensemble of Georgia. Since 2006, she has acted as an United Nations National Goodwill Ambassador
Goodwill Ambassador
Goodwill Ambassador is a collective term sometimes used as a substitute honorific title or a title of honor for an Ambassador of Goodwill; but, most appropriately for a generic recognition, it is a job position or description that is usually indicated following the name of the individual recognized...
for Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...
. UN Goodwill Ambassadors in Georgia: Nina Ananiashvili. United Nations Country Team in Georgia. Accessed April 10, 2011
Personal life
Ananiashvili was married, in 1988, to Grigol VashadzeGrigol Vashadze
Grigol Vashadze is a Georgian politician, diplomat and a member of the Cabinet of Georgia in the capacity of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia. From 2 November 2008 until 10 December of the same year Vashadze briefly served as the Minister for Culture, Heritage Preservation and Sport...
, a Georgian politician and diplomat who has been the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia in the Cabinet of Georgia
Cabinet of Georgia
The Cabinet of Georgia is an executive council of government ministers in Georgia. It is headed by the Prime Minister of Georgia. In the cases of utmost importance, the meetings may be led by the President of Georgia . The first Cabinet of Georgia was formed by Noe Zhordania in the Democratic...
since December 2008. They have a daughter, Helen, and a son, Nodar.
On November 23, 2006 she became the Godmother
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
of Nikoloz Saakashvili, younger son of the Georgian President
President of Georgia
The President of Georgia is the head of state, supreme commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office within the Government of Georgia. Executive power is split between the President and the Prime Minister, who is the head of government...
Mikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili is a Georgian politician, the third and current President of Georgia and leader of the United National Movement Party.Involved in the national politics since 1995, Saakashvili became president on 25 January 2004 after President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in a November 2003...
, together with President
President of Ukraine
Prior to the formation of the modern Ukrainian presidency, the previous Ukrainian head of state office was officially established in exile by Andriy Livytskyi. At first the de facto leader of nation was the president of the Central Rada at early years of the Ukrainian People's Republic, while the...
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
who became the Godfather
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
of the child.
Awards
- People's Artist of Georgia (1989)
- People's Artist of RussiaPeople's Artist of RussiaPeople's Artist of Russia, also sometimes translated as National Artist of Russia, is an honorary title granted to citizens of Russia.It succeeded both the all-Soviet union award People's Artist of the USSR , and more directly the local republic award, People's Artist of the RSFSR , after the...
(17 March 1995) - for the great achievements in art http://www.bolshoi.ru/ru/theatre/ballet_troupe/soloists/detail.php?act26=info&id26=100 - Order of Merit for the FatherlandOrder of Merit for the FatherlandThe Order of Merit for the Fatherland was instituted on 2 March 1994 by Presidential Decree. The statutes describe it as a decoration for merit, not an order of knights....
, 4th class (22 March 2001) - for outstanding contribution to the development of national music and theatre - Order of Honour (Georgia) (22 January 2003)
- Presidential Order of Light (Georgia, 26 May 2010)
- Russian Independent National Award "Triumph" (the first time a dancer was honoured), 1991.
- National Shota Rustaveli Award, Georgia, 1993.
- "Dance Magazine" Award, 2002.
- "Ballet" Magazine Award Soul of the Dance (category Queen of the Dance), 2003.
External links
- Her long biography and repertoire
- Nina in Giselle
- Nina in Don Quixote
- The Ballerina Gallery – Nina Ananiashvili
- Archival footage of Nina Ananiashvili and Principles of the Bolshoi Ballet performing Charms of Mannerism in 1999 at Jacob's Pillow
- Archival footage of Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia performing Thais Pas de Deux in 2010 at Jacob's Pillow
