Russian invasion stirs up memories of trip to Tbilisi

When I heard the former Soviet republic of Georgia was invaded by the Russian Army on Aug. 7, it was as though I had learned of the terrible luck befalling a good, but distant, friend.

I was part of group of 20 dance critics, directors of ballet companies and ardent dance supporters who spent 10 days in Tbilisi in 1990 observing the teaching of ballet technique at the then Vaganova Institute of Ballet.

Filled with roses of many hues and purple peonies, the city resembled a run-down Rome. Large homes with Italianate porches often appeared to be in horrible disrepair on the outside, only to be astonishingly well-kept on the inside.

Coincidentally, Charleston's Spoleto Festival USA has a connection to Tbilisi: prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili and The State Ballet of Georgia were part of the 2007 festival. Ananiashvili, a Tbilisi native who received the State Prize of Georgia for her contribution to Georgian culture, had previously danced at Spoleto with the American Ballet Theatre, where she served as a principal dancer.

Seeing a picture in the New York Times of refugees from the region of South Ossetia taking shelter in Tbilisi, which is especially in danger because of the air base located on its outskirts, I recalled the ethereal city where the arts are so revered that a piano can be found in even the smallest apartment, at times even occupying a corner in a kitchen.

My visit to Tbilisi was a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and I saw how the Russian government could, at will, swoop down and steal from this green place on the Black Sea.

Read more in Sunday's editions of the Post and Courier.