Dancing Revolution

Since Sleater Kinney is not touring in Tbilisi, last night I went to a Georgian folk dance performance. The company is apparently famous and has toured throughout the world since 1945. It was started by a couple and after their passing away, it has been taken over by their children and grandchildren. In addition, current dancers are the children and grandchildren of the original dancers, essentially making it a family run affair. The dances that were choreographed in 1940s were based on folk dances that were performed in villages in the old time Georgia and such public performances apparently did not exist until this specific dance company started.

The whole thing was really amazing. I’ve seen such dances performed on TV while growing up in Latvia but I never had a chance to see them live. Or at least, I don’t remember seeing them, I am sure my parents will have some say in this. Generally, most dances are performed by men and, as my friend explained, they are either showing off their mightiness or fighting over a woman. Women tiptoed and fluttered around, waving white flags of peace. Compared to men, their dancing was fairly stiff and not much was happening. My friend explained that traditionally women were required to act respectfully towards men with patients, gentleness, and passivity. Hence their rather passive dancing. Also, apparently, men were forbidden to touch women unless they are married, therefore there is not physical interaction between men and women on stage. You’ll notice in pictures below how stiff and symmetrical women and men are. Since the light was super low and I didn’t use flash or any special settings, some of the pictures didn’t come out too well although they look really cool.

Although all of the dances looked stunning due to the speed and crazy leg work, the most jaw-dropping dance was performed by men with daggers. It was insane, not only they were jumping and twirling on their feet and their knees (!), but they were also waving and hitting each other’s daggers to a point where sparks were flying left and right. And the dance lasted for a good 15- 20 minutes. I have no idea how no one was injured or cut. There are pictures below of this insanity.

Since the original directors of the company died, their grandchildren went a little wild and choreographed new dances with the same folk undertones but also incorporated elements that are now considered radical. For example, women wore pants under their dresses, something that was unheard of before the youngens took over. Unlike the stiff traditional dances, women were also jumping and kicking their feet into the air – very different from the tip-toeing in the traditional dances. One of the war dances was performed by women, which, as you can imagine, traditionally was reserved for men. Apparently, there are a lot of rumblings from purists who are annoyed by the new choreography but my friends were really enthusiastic as evident in their exuberant hand clapping and thought it was about time for women to be equal to men on stage, which, in their hopes, would transition into the general society. Since Georgia just had a Rose Revolution to overthrow Shevardnadze, I figured, why not Dancing Revolution for gender rights? Yes, I am full of wit.

Apparently, when Bush came to town, this company was performing throughout his visit here. I am sure you’ve seen a clip of him shaking his ass several times on TV. Well, since this was the company’s 50th Anniversary, they also played short clips of the performances from the 1940s and later. As they showed clips of the original directors, the crowd would clap and cheer. They ended with a short clip with Bush shaking his ass and then waving out of the limo with a HUGE grin on his face. The crowd went wild, people were clapping, cheering and whistling. Incidentally, the dagger dance was not performed when Bush was here for security reasons. But my friend informed me that he really liked the women’s worrier dance. I am not sure why, probably not because of the symbolism of women’s emancipation, but probably because they wore these metal coin-like breast shields that made a cool metallic jingle sound. Jingle, jingle!

Anyways, that was my adventure yesterday. The electricity has been good today (I’m knocking on wood) but it’s been cold and rainy. I hope it warms up soon because I didn’t bring a lot of cold weather clothing. And it’s bad news for my watermelons. Not those, silly, the ones that grow on land and need a lot of sunshine while awaiting my consumption. And the light bulb in the bathroom burned out so hopefully, I can figure out where to buy a light bulb soon.