By a surprising coincidence, recently, literally one day apart, the Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi after Zacharia Paliashvili and the Yerevan National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet after Spendaryan presented ballet “Don Quixote” by Minkus.
Razmik Marukyan, the leading solo dancer of our theater, performed the role of Basel for the first time in the Tbilisi Theater. In Yerevan, the said ballet was presented by the Saint–Petersburg State Academic Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre.
“Aravot” invited Razmik Marukyan for an interview. Before submitting it, let’s note that the Armenian ballet artist’s tour in Georgia in early February was, in fact, in the context of the deepening of Armenian-Georgian cultural ties, within the perspectives of the joint initiatives of Nino Ananiashvili , the artistic director of the Tbilisi Theater, and Karen Durgaryan, the acting director of the Yerevan Theater. The first step was not delayed.
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The Armenian ballet artist was impressed by the production of “Don Quixote” by the world-famous artist and choreographer Nino Ananiashvili. As for how he was invited, our interlocutor only said that he and Mrs. Ananiashvili met in 2021 during the international competition of ballet artists in Helsinki.
“In February of this year, when she visited our Opera house and attended rehearsals, she reminded me. After a while, maestro Durgaryan informed me that I should go to Tbilisi. That’s all.”
The Tbilisi Theater has a beautiful ballet group that goes on tour for months. Agreeing with what was said, the artist noted that “Don Quixote” was the first ballet performance in the Tbilisi Theater after a six-month absence. “Both the solo dancers and the corps de ballet are in great shape. Let me repeat that I am impressed by Ananiashvili’s production. By the way, the schedule of Tbilisi Theater includes more than 30 ballet performances, of which one or two works of the same name are staged by different choreographers, for example, Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet“… Razmik Marukyan said.
We noticed that this fact does not surprise us, because our theater also has two “Carmen” by Bizet, directed by Naira Stepanyan and Armen Meliksetyan. Out of curiosity, did anything surprise our interlocutor, who performed solo dances in theaters in Germany and Great Britain last year: Siegfried, Desiree, and Prince in Tchaikovsky: “Swan Lake,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Nutcracker“? And before that was on tour, with the ballet group of the Yerevan Theater, to Malaysia, Moscow to the “Bolshoi” theater, answered: “The ballet troupe in the Tbilisi Theater was multinational: Japanese, Chinese, American, Russian, and Armenian, more than 50 percent of the troupe. Oh, that was amazing.”
By the way, back in 2009, in the interview given to “Aravot”, Nino Ananiashvili talked about a problem still relevant in Armenia today. “Boys are not brought to ballet school. It is time to change that thinking. Mothers have to convince their husbands that our profession is very masculine. Well, pick up the dancer, hold her in your hand, no matter how small she is, can you…”
Ananiashvili solved that problem by inviting foreign dancers. At the end of the conversation, in response to the interest, Razmik Marukyan stated without elaborating that he received an offer of further cooperation from Mrs. Ananiashvili.
Samvel DANIELYAN
“Aravot” daily, 21.03.2023
