Always on my my my my my my mind

Last night we went to BAM and saw The State Ballet of Georgia, featuring its artistic director and principal dancer, Nina Ananiashvili.

We live within walking distance of one of the top cultural institutions in this here city, and in the past two years we've barely, barely utilized it. We saw a cool production of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" last year, and I think that's been it (other than to see a couple of movies at the movie theater). So I got us a spring subscription (four shows) as a Christmas gift for Cathleen. Yes, "got us" ... "for Cathleen." I'm clever that way. When you get a subscription, you choose four shows out of their smorgasbord of options. A couple were no-brainers for me: Patrick Stewart in a modern adaptation of MacBeth; John Turturro in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame." I threw in an Alvin Ailey Dance Troupe performance, and I figured that Cathleen, at the very least, would really enjoy the ballet. I had never been to the ballet, and I at least had an intellectual curiosity, though I wasn't sure that that curiosity would hold for a more than two-hour performance.

Oh. My. God. It was amazing. First of all, it turns out that Nina Ananianshvili is some sort of international ballet star...she dances with the Bolshoi Ballet and was recruited by the Georgian president in 2004 to take over the State Ballet of Georgia in an attempt to restore that country's ballet to its former glory (you know, from back in the 19th century). Last night's show consisted of four performances, broken up by two intermissions, with music provided by a full orchestra which travels with the ballet company. A full ensemble piece (Chaconne by George Balanchine), then only two dancers accompanied by a pianist and violinist (Duo Concertant by Balanchine), then a piece with six dancers (Bizet Variations by Alexei Ratmansky) and finally a lively set where a dozen or so men and women danced to Georgian folk songs (Sagalobelli by Yuri Posskhov). The show moved from traditional to more contemporary, and so we were able to experience a variety of music and dance. Nina danced in the first and third of them, and as good as the other dancers were, she was noticeably dancing on another level.

But they were all on another level from normal humans. Perfect body control displayed with unimagineable grace. Even their bows at the end of the performances made me feel clumsy. As they danced, it was as if the rules of gravity and friction did not apply to them. Not that they were jumping particularly high, but that as they flitted about, it was as if the floor was resisting them. And it all appeared as if it was effortless for them, whether they were spinning, dancing on their toes for outrageous periods of time (how do they do that??), leaping about...but then they'd stop, and you'd see these small signs of heavy breathing only in the top of their chests, or strains of sweat on some of the guys, and you realized that you were gazing at truly gifted athletes. It was entrancing to see these beautiful people moving that way.