Dance in Georgia

Levan Khetaguri

[Abstract] Located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, between East and West, Europe and Asia,Georgia is a key link on the Silk Road.Georgian culture has flourished in the context of multiculturalism,diversity, mix of ideas and traditions, but still keeps and develops its strong national tradition.Dance in Georgia,or traditional Georgian Dance, originated in ancient times, starting from the pagan time and growing in the Christian period.Mainly discussing the Georgian traditional dance, this paper begins with recounting the Georgian history, then introduces several regional dances of Georgia, and finally presents the development of ballet and contemporary dance in Georgia.Georgian dance is highly diversified and has unique theatrical forms in different parts of the country.

[Keywords] Traditional Georgian dance, rituals, ballet, physical theatre, movement theatre, George Balanchine,George Gurdjieff, Nino Ananiashvili, Robert Sturua

Georgia is located at the crossroad between two seas(the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea), between East and West, Europe and Asia, so it is the heart of the Silk Road.Historically, Georgia (Kingdoms of Kolkheti and Iberia)was part of ancient tragedies: Prometheus in Caucasus,Medea and Argonauts.Georgian culture has therefore flourished in the context of multiculturalism, diversity,mix of ideas and traditions, but at the same time keeps and develops its strong tradition.

This paper focuses on dance in Georgia, which is often called traditional Georgian dance or some companies call National Ballets.Starting from the pagan period and growing during the long Christian period,Georgian dance is very diverse, with each part of Georgia giving unique theatre-chorographical performances.Traditional authentic performance included dance and polyphonic singing together.This paper would give a few examples from the past and different parts of Georgia.

Most of these dances are either pagan or pre-Christian, following the strong esoteric, ritual traditions of Sun, Moon and other Astral or oldest cults.Dances very often imitate symbols from the universe, which is very well expressed in traditional forms of “Perkhuli”, the round dance, and are very old artifacts of intangible culture.

Archeological discoveries have shown that the round dance of hunters in masks is shown on silver cups from the second millennium BC.Probably this ritual was dedicated to the goddess of hunting.Hunting rituals can still be found in the mountain parts of Georgia.A modification of such rituals is warriors dances like Khorumi.Another important artifact is a dancing girl on the bone plate from the sixth century BC.This painting proves the existence of female dance rituals dedicated to the goddess of productivity.

Georgian dance could be categorized by chronology(pre-Christian and Christian), by character (sacred and civil), and by location of origin (urban and rural).

Christian (starting from the fourth century)Character Sacred Civil Location of origin Rural Urban Chronology Pre-Christian(starting from the second millennium B.C.)

Public performances (mostly at the royal palaces)during the 11th to the 13th centuries in Georgia had synthetic forms of expression, and dialogue was made through dance.Dance usually contained 4 or 5 parts,including male and female roles, which was a reflection of the civil and urban culture.

An introduction to the oldest dances

Khorumi is a dance from the region of Adjara,the oldest dance of worriers.Historians believe that it originated during the pagan time but was systematically performed till the 12th to the 13th centuries before the battles.This dance has very clear dramaturgy, musically supported by drums and wind instruments, with clear ritualistic rhythm and geometrical forms of movement,including round dance and beautiful lines.The number of dancers ranged from 5 to 20, but nowadays about 30 to 50 dancers perform this dance, which is similar to Greek chorus movement figures on the orchestra.

The story line of the dance is that a few warriors are searching the area for a campsite and enemy camps perform the initial prelude to the dance.Afterwards, they call the army onto the battlefield.Its strength, simple but distinctive movements and the exactness oflines create a sense of awe on the stage.The dance incorporates the themes of search, war, and the celebration of victory.Khorumi is performed only by males with a protagonist.

Other interesting old dances are Khanjluri (Sword Dance) and Parikaoba (Sword play, fencing or epee)which is also called Khevsuruli by the name of the region.Telling different stories, both come from mountain regions and are marital type of dances.Their origin is hard to pinpoint, but both had pagan and Christian features.

Many Georgian dances are based on the idea of competition.Khanjluri is one of them.In this dance,shepherds, dressed in red Chokhas (traditional men’s wear), compete with each other by using daggers and performing complicated movements.One performer replaces another, and courage and skill overflow on the stage.Since Khanjluri involves daggers and knives, it requires tremendous skill and practice on the part of the performers.There are syntheses of circus elements and dance, as well as well trained shepherds — warriors,dancers and performers.

Khevsuruli or Parikaoba has a narrative of triangle love stories, showing respect for women and awe for marital competition.Parikaoba is a good example of acrobatic and marital training of traditional warriors,dancers in Georgia.Using real swords, they need to be very skillful.

This warrior’s dance is from the far northeastern region of Khevsureti.This mountain dance is probably the best representative of the Georgian spirit.It integrates love, courage, and respect for women, toughness,competition, skill, beauty, and colorfulness into one amazing performance.The dance starts with a flirting couple.Unexpectedly, another young man appears, also seeking the hand of the woman.A conflict breaks out and soon turns into a vigorous fighting between the two men and their supporters.This dance is an energetic battle with sword and shield.When the girl throws down her headdress, the men must stop according to tradition, only to renew their battle soon after.

Those dances correspond to or may be somehow similar to the traditional Chinese theatre with the episodes of swords and battles.

The last example of traditional dance, Shejibri, is also based on competition where dancers are engaged in a colorful competition with each other through dance,acrobatic skills, difficult movement, and bravery.This dance, with the high level of dancing skills, physical training, brings a feeling of festivity, and the emotional interactions and rhythmic exchanges always excite the audience.

Each of these dances has mini dramas as chorographical,plastic narratives and characters as types.They are the representative traditional performing arts of Georgia.Meanwhile, Georgian dance needs to be considered not only as Georgian traditional performing arts; it is one of the examples of world intangible heritage, too.Many elements or full replicas can be found in different productions worldwide, even in the Cirque Du Solei.At the Central Cathedral in Mtzkheta, the wall painting shows dance procession together with astrological,mythological and theological images, which underlines the importance of dance not only for the civil society but also for the church.

The tradition of folk dance is very strong later although in the 14th century the concept of classical ballet was imported from Europe and Russia.One of the remarkable Georgians who created ballet in the USA was Giorgi Balanchivadze, who is better known as George Balanchine.

In the early 20th century Tbilisi, capital of Georgia,Jana Zaltsmann created a school of rhythm (based on anthroposophy) and later Giorgi Gurdjieff opened his Human Harmonic Development Institute during 1918—1920, based on sacred dances.Giorgi Gurdjieff had already started rehearsals for his work Battle of Magicians at Tbilisi Opera Theatre, but Russian occupation (in 1921) cut short his project in Georgia.Only some of dances were shown in 1920.The Soviet Union stopped anything except “Imperial” ballet.

Later, there were few experiments, but during the 20th century Georgian dance shifted from a very competitive dance form to classical ballet.In Georgia,there were many famous dancers who worked in Bolshoi or Marinski Theatres till now.

The first experiments in contemporary dance started in the 1990s.Personally, I was working with the Netherlands Theatre Institute, bringing in Georgia —Jan Langedijk, with movement theatre De Daders.I published A Field Guide for Imaginary Behavior and implemented a series of workshops in 1999.

At the same time, the French Institute started funding contemporary dance workshops and later DilisSaari (Morning Chant) was staged, which was first shown at Montpelier Festival in 1999.The performance featured drama actors, using music and poetic text.The choreographer was Tamaz Vashakidze.

In 2003, I was a co-producer in a project with the NL and Germany during the Avignon Festival.The Dutch choreographers, working with actors and young dancers from a folk company in Kutaisi, created a contemporary dance based on folk dance elements, but it was “redirected”.It was successfully shown in Germany and NL during one month in 2003.

At the same time, Nino Ananiashvili from the Bolshoi Theatre returned to Georgia as an artistic director at the national opera and ballet theatre in Tbilisi after 2004.Soon, she restored its classical repertoire and Balanchine’s works, implemented IrjiKylians ballets,inviting young choreographers and they toured around the year.In 2017, she established the International Ballet Festival in Tbilisi.

In the late 1990s, Kakha Bakuradze, an actor of mime theatre, first created a movement-dance Richard III, based on the Shakespearean play.This performance was brought to the festivals in Armenia and Russia in 2000.After Kakha Bakuradze created his movement theatre.Since 2010, he already gave many street performances in Georgia and abroad.

At the Rustaveli National Theatre, well-known drama director Robert Sturua have also engaged in the experiments of movement theatre.In 2003, he created STYX based on Gia Kancheli’s music.For the worldfamous Robert Sturua, the expression through traditional text-based theatre wasn’t enough and he started using movement and physical theatre language as new forms for self expression.

There were many other workshops and smallscale experiments, but very few succeeded.During this period, choreographer Mariam Aleksidze presented a few performances, which were called contemporary dance but still looked like neo-classic (Kaparchana, Harira, Gurji Khatun).

At the Tbilisi Music and Drama Theatre, choreographer Kote Purtseladze staged some movement performances like Salome, Carmen and Three Sisters by Chekhov.

Several workshops in contact improvisation were organized in Georgia, including 2013 Goran Bogdanowski from Slovenia and International journey in contact improvisation 2013 and 2014.

The latest experiments come from the very famous Sukhichishvili National Ballet Company, which created Ramishvili as a piece of contemporary dance.

In 2000, they started an interesting initiative to link traditional dance with modernity.They set up a series of evenings called folkoteka and ASSA parties which became very popular among the young people.They also did many experiments with traditional dance for audience development and making new attractions.

Mostly dance projects are conducted in cities like Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi where there are many young independent groups practicing street dance, break dance and other forms.They are still not yet developed but exploring education in contemporary dance.

Bibliography

Primary sources

［1］ Khetaguri Levan, Gurdjieff and Twentieth Century Culture, Gurdjieffin Tiflis, edited by Levan Khetaguri, Constance A.Jones, TAFU,Tbilisi, 2007.

［2］ Khetaguri Levan,Gurdjieff and Tiflis at the Turn of the (19th—20th) Centuries, International Interdisciplinary Conference, Pirosmani and Georgian Culture, Proceedings, Tbilisi, 2014.

Secondary sources

［3］ https://georgiaabout.com/2012/09/03/about-culturegeorgian-dance-part-1.

［4］ http://www.sukhishvili.com

［5］ http://www.laurelvictoriagray.com/georgian-dance.html.

格魯吉亞舞蹈

列萬·赫塔古里

【內(nèi)容摘要】

格魯吉亞位于黑海和里海之間，介于東西方之間和亞歐之間，是絲綢之路的核心地區(qū)。因此，格魯吉亞文化的發(fā)展，得益于多種文化的融合、不同思想的碰撞，同時也保留了格魯吉亞的民族傳統(tǒng)。歷史上的格魯吉亞（科爾赫提王國和伊比利亞半島）是古希臘悲劇的場所的一部分，是普羅米修斯在高加索的囚禁之地，以及美狄亞公主的祖國和阿爾戈英雄尋找金羊毛的國度。

格魯吉亞舞蹈，即格魯吉亞傳統(tǒng)舞蹈，起源于古代，始于異教徒時代，在基督教時期不斷發(fā)展嬗變。本文將主要討論格魯吉亞的傳統(tǒng)舞蹈，也將介紹格魯吉亞的民族芭蕾舞和當(dāng)代舞。格魯吉亞舞蹈高度多元化，在國內(nèi)的不同區(qū)域都有獨(dú)特的劇場創(chuàng)作表演形式。真正的傳統(tǒng)表演大多是舞蹈和復(fù)調(diào)合唱混合的歌舞。在此，筆者舉例講述格魯吉亞的歷史，介紹格魯吉亞幾種不同的地方歌舞。

格魯吉亞的舞蹈大多源于基督教傳播之前，可以追溯到非常神秘的異教儀式的傳統(tǒng)，包括對太陽、月亮和其他星體的崇拜，以及最古老的宗教等，都對格魯吉亞舞蹈有很大的影響。舞蹈常常試圖模仿宇宙中的符號，這些符號在圓舞（perkhuli）等傳統(tǒng)舞蹈中有充分的體現(xiàn)，是格魯吉亞的非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)。

有學(xué)者寫道，考古發(fā)現(xiàn)告訴我們，公元前2000年的銀杯上戴面具的獵人所跳圓舞，也許這種儀式是奉獻(xiàn)給狩獵女神的。格魯吉亞山區(qū)仍然保留著這樣的狩獵儀式。這種儀式后來演變成騎士們的“戰(zhàn)馬舞”。

另一項(xiàng)重要遺存是公元前6世紀(jì)骨盤上所繪的跳舞的姑娘。骨盤上的舞女形象表明女性舞蹈儀式的存在，這是向和寺廟緊密聯(lián)系的生殖女神致敬的舞蹈儀式。

格魯吉亞傳統(tǒng)舞蹈按歷史階段可以分為前基督教時期和基督教時期，按人物可以分為神圣的舞蹈和民間舞蹈，按起源地可以分為城市舞蹈和農(nóng)村舞蹈。

從11至13世紀(jì)，格魯吉亞的舞蹈表演采取綜合表現(xiàn)形式（主要是在皇宮表演），即通過舞蹈進(jìn)行對話。舞蹈通常分為四個或五個部分，表演者包括男性和女性舞者，主要反映市民和城市文化。

回到格魯吉亞最古老的舞蹈。“戰(zhàn)馬舞”是阿賈拉地區(qū)的古代武士舞蹈，歷史學(xué)家認(rèn)為它起源于異教時期，但直到12、13世紀(jì)仍在持續(xù)表演。這種舞蹈有著非常明確的戲劇性，伴奏樂器主要包括鼓和管樂器，具有顯著的儀式感，舞蹈動作呈幾何形態(tài)，包括圓形舞蹈和優(yōu)美線條等。舞者的數(shù)量從5人到20人不等，如今也有30—50名舞者的表演。筆者個人覺得其類似于有管弦樂隊(duì)伴奏的希臘合唱隊(duì)。舞蹈的故事情節(jié)一般是武士尋找營地，而序曲是敵軍營地的舞蹈。之后，軍隊(duì)便進(jìn)入戰(zhàn)場。舞臺上富有力量、簡單而獨(dú)特的動作和形態(tài)線條的精確性讓人震撼。舞蹈表達(dá)了搜索、戰(zhàn)爭和慶祝勝利的主題?！皯?zhàn)馬舞”只由男性舞者表演，有故事的主角。舞蹈風(fēng)格有別，但情節(jié)大體是相同的。

另一種有趣的古老傳統(tǒng)舞蹈是劍舞（Khanjluri）和劍術(shù)舞（Parikaoba，原地區(qū)名為Khevsuruli），兩種舞蹈講述不同的故事，但都是來自山區(qū)，屬于婚慶舞蹈。它們的年代起源難以確定，都兼具異教徒和基督教時代的特征。

“許多格魯吉亞舞蹈都體現(xiàn)了戰(zhàn)斗的精神。坎里烏里（Khanjluri）就是其中之一。在這種舞蹈中，牧羊人穿著紅色的喬卡（傳統(tǒng)的男裝），揮舞著匕首，表現(xiàn)復(fù)雜的戰(zhàn)斗動作。在表演過程中，舞者輪流更替，舞臺上洋溢著勇氣和戰(zhàn)斗技能。由于坎里烏里舞蹈運(yùn)用匕首和刀，舞者需要具備高超的實(shí)際技能?！痹谖璧钢?，馬戲和舞蹈元素相結(jié)合，舞者都是訓(xùn)練有素的牧羊人，他們既是戰(zhàn)士，也是舞者。戰(zhàn)斗舞通常講述一個愛情故事（三角戀愛故事），強(qiáng)調(diào)尊重婦女，情節(jié)以搶親為主。在戰(zhàn)斗舞中，格魯吉亞戰(zhàn)士舞者使用真劍進(jìn)行類似于雜技的表演，技巧要求非常高。一位舞者扮演來自東北部Khevsureti地區(qū)的戰(zhàn)士。“這種山區(qū)舞蹈可能是格魯吉亞精神的最好表現(xiàn)形式。在舞蹈中，愛、勇氣、對女性的尊重、韌性、競爭、技巧、美麗和色彩融為一體，形成令人嘆為觀止的表演。舞蹈從一對情侶調(diào)情開始。然而，出乎意料地出現(xiàn)了另一個年輕人，他也愛這個姑娘。于是，一場沖突爆發(fā)，很快變成了兩個青年及其支持者之間的激烈戰(zhàn)斗。舞蹈是劍與盾的激戰(zhàn)?！惫媚锶酉骂^飾時，男人們則依傳統(tǒng)停止戰(zhàn)斗，不過隨后又開始戰(zhàn)斗。筆者覺得，這種舞蹈和中國傳統(tǒng)武戲相似。

最后一種傳統(tǒng)舞蹈戰(zhàn)斗舞是Shejibri，舞者結(jié)合舞蹈和雜技的高難度動作，進(jìn)行勇敢、精彩的表演。這種舞蹈融合高超的舞蹈和體育技能，有喜慶的感覺，情感洋溢，節(jié)奏緊張，讓觀眾持續(xù)興奮不已。

每一種舞蹈都有精致的編舞、情節(jié)和人物設(shè)計，因此可以視為格魯吉亞的傳統(tǒng)表演藝術(shù)。筆者認(rèn)為，格魯吉亞舞蹈不僅應(yīng)該被視為格魯吉亞的傳統(tǒng)表演藝術(shù)形式，而且已經(jīng)成為世界非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)的典范。其中許多元素已應(yīng)用于世界各地的各種表演形式之中，乃至太陽馬戲團(tuán)也曾復(fù)制其部分元素。Mtzkheta大教堂的壁畫中既有對舞蹈表演的描繪，也有占星術(shù)、神話和神學(xué)圖像，這有可能強(qiáng)調(diào)舞蹈對于民間社會和教會的重要性?？傊?，民間舞蹈的傳統(tǒng)非常強(qiáng)大。

19世紀(jì)，古典芭蕾通過歐洲和俄羅斯進(jìn)入格魯吉亞。20世紀(jì)30年代，有一位杰出的格魯吉亞人在美國開創(chuàng)了芭蕾舞，即大家所熟知的喬治·巴蘭欽。20世紀(jì)初，在格魯吉亞首都第比利斯，亞納基于人智學(xué)創(chuàng)立了節(jié)奏學(xué)派，后來喬治·葛吉夫在1918—1920年以神圣舞蹈為基礎(chǔ)，創(chuàng)辦了人類和諧研究所。這是一個重要而漫長的故事，不是一篇簡短的文章所能盡述的。葛吉夫已經(jīng)開始為在第比利斯歌劇院開幕的魔術(shù)師之戰(zhàn)進(jìn)行排練，但因?yàn)楸欢砹_斯占領(lǐng)（1921年），導(dǎo)致他不能在格魯吉亞實(shí)現(xiàn)這個項(xiàng)目，只在1920年表演過部分舞蹈。蘇聯(lián)禁止了除“帝國”芭蕾舞之外的所有舞蹈。后來的實(shí)驗(yàn)很少，但在20世紀(jì)，格魯吉亞舞蹈一直是對古典芭蕾極具挑戰(zhàn)的舞蹈形式。格魯吉亞有許多著名的舞者，至今仍在莫斯科大劇院或馬林斯劇院工作。

第二次世界大戰(zhàn)后，喬治·阿列克西澤創(chuàng)作了很多作品，既有芭蕾舞劇也有現(xiàn)代舞，包括所謂的新古典主義舞蹈，但大多是美國和歐洲的現(xiàn)代風(fēng)格。

在20世紀(jì)90年代，當(dāng)代舞蹈的第一次實(shí)驗(yàn)開始了。就個人而言，筆者曾與荷蘭戲劇學(xué)院合作，引進(jìn)了喬治亞州的賈恩，1999年開展運(yùn)動劇場的表演系列講習(xí)班，撰寫了《想象行為現(xiàn)場指南》。同時，法國學(xué)院開始資助當(dāng)代舞蹈工作坊，后來的第一個舞蹈項(xiàng)目“迪利斯薩里/晨誦/表演”在1999年的蒙彼利埃藝術(shù)節(jié)上演出。該舞蹈主要由戲劇演員表演，融合采用音樂、聲音和詩歌文本。舞蹈編導(dǎo)是塔瑪茲·瓦斯基譯。2003年，筆者與荷蘭和德國藝術(shù)家合作，共同制作了一個節(jié)目，參加阿維尼翁藝術(shù)節(jié)。荷蘭編舞與庫塔伊西民間舞蹈團(tuán)的演員和年輕舞者合作，創(chuàng)作了基于民間舞蹈元素的當(dāng)代舞蹈作品，屬于創(chuàng)新創(chuàng)作。2003年，這一當(dāng)代舞蹈作品在德國和荷蘭成功演出了一個月。同時，莫斯科大劇院的尼諾·安娜妮婭舒薇莉返回格魯吉亞，擔(dān)任第比利斯國家歌劇院的藝術(shù)總監(jiān)，2004年后擔(dān)任芭蕾舞劇院的藝術(shù)總監(jiān)。她很快重排了經(jīng)典劇目，包括巴蘭欽的作品，并排演凱里·基利安芭蕾舞，邀請年輕的編舞一起合作，開展了一整年的巡演。2017年，她在第比利斯設(shè)立了國際芭蕾舞節(jié)。

20世紀(jì)90年代末，啞劇演員卡哈·巴庫拉德澤開創(chuàng)了運(yùn)動舞蹈，排演了基于莎士比亞戲劇作品《查理三世》的舞蹈作品。筆者促成這個節(jié)目參加了2000年在亞美尼亞和俄羅斯的藝術(shù)節(jié)。創(chuàng)建運(yùn)動劇場之后，自2010年起，卡哈·巴庫拉德澤在格魯吉亞和國外進(jìn)行了多場街頭表演。魯斯塔維里國家劇院的著名戲劇導(dǎo)演羅伯特·斯圖拉也試驗(yàn)過運(yùn)動劇場，最初是在1989年，后來是在1993—1994年也有過試驗(yàn)，最終于2003年創(chuàng)作了由賈·坎契里配樂的運(yùn)動劇場劇目《斯提克斯》（STYX）。很明顯，對于世界著名導(dǎo)演斯圖拉而言，基于文本的傳統(tǒng)戲劇的表達(dá)力是不夠的，于是，他開始使用樂章和身體舞劇語言，作為自我表達(dá)的新形式。與此同時，仍然有許多工作室開展小規(guī)模的實(shí)驗(yàn)，但很少有成功的例子。編舞馬里亞姆·阿列克西澤創(chuàng)作了少數(shù)節(jié)目，名義上是當(dāng)代舞蹈，但實(shí)際上很像新古典主義的舞蹈。第比利斯音樂劇院的編舞科捷·普萊塞拉澤，2010—2017年創(chuàng)作了基于《莎樂美》《卡門》和契訶夫《三姐妹》的舞蹈運(yùn)動劇場劇目。格魯吉亞全國也舉辦了幾次接觸即興創(chuàng)作研討會，其中來自斯洛文尼亞的戈蘭·博格達(dá)諾夫斯基參加了2013年和2014年的國際巡回接觸即興表演。

最新的實(shí)驗(yàn)來自非常著名的蘇克希什維利國家芭蕾舞團(tuán)，基于格魯吉亞傳統(tǒng)舞蹈，他們將拉米什維利的作品改編為當(dāng)代舞蹈作品。2000年，他們開始將傳統(tǒng)舞蹈與現(xiàn)代性聯(lián)系起來，創(chuàng)作了“Folkoteka”和亞薩合（“ASSA”）舞蹈，很受年輕人的歡迎。他們還對許多傳統(tǒng)舞蹈進(jìn)行創(chuàng)新實(shí) 驗(yàn)，提高對觀眾的吸引力。大多數(shù)舞蹈項(xiàng)目都在第比利斯、庫塔伊西和巴統(tǒng)等城市開展實(shí)施，我們可以看到許多青年獨(dú)立團(tuán)體練習(xí)街舞和霹靂舞，但至今未被納入當(dāng)代舞蹈教育。

【關(guān)鍵詞】

格魯吉亞傳統(tǒng)舞蹈；儀式；芭蕾；運(yùn)動劇場；喬治·巴蘭欽；喬治·葛吉夫；尼諾·安娜妮婭舒薇莉；羅伯特·斯圖拉