The Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet is working on the creation of its latest work, a “multimedia ballet” involving experimental media and the troupe’s dancers, in a newly redesigned Tbilisi venue from a detention center to a contemporary art space.
In the courtyard of the Alternative Art Space No 12, formerly of the penitentiary No 12 in the Ortatchala district of the capital, artistic director Mariam Aleksidze and his dancers will bring a production combining contemporary choreography, experimental music, sound design, video projection and lighting.
Revealed by the artistic director to her followers on social networks, 12 visits will involve a dozen women of different generations – from the current performers of the company to former soloists known for their dance in the Soviet era and currently involved in the teaching of ballet.
The production will be one of the first artistic works performed in the recently redeveloped space. Photo via Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet.
They will participate in a series of “internal choreographic monologues” in “dates with fictitious prisoners,” Aleksidze said, with the audience seated around the performers as partial participants in the production.
Performers will also interact with visuals projected from inside the building for ‘plastic dialogues’, while music and sound design by Natalie Beridze and Nika Machaidze – two pioneers of the Georgian experimental scene – will provide a backdrop. .
Machaidze also worked for the video element of the production, with Kakha Bukhrashvili contributing through the camera work.
Artistic director Mariam Aleksidze, artist and producer Nika Machaidze and Professor David Maziashvili photographed in the space of the former detention center. Photo via Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet.
Marina Aleksidze, Maka Makharadze, Niala Godziashvili and Ketevan Mukhashavria – former dancers of the Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet Theater currently involved in teaching work with the contemporary dance company – will enter the newly redesigned space with the current troop roster for the start of production.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth revealed the new vocation of Alternative Art Space No 12 in August, when the former detention center was given a creative vocation for artists and collectives working on different mediums.
Based on a concept by Professor Davit Maziashvili and carried out under his direction, the project won the grant from the Ministry of Culture for the support of ballet productions, and is produced with the support of the ministry.
