Credit: Nina Ananiashvili

Nina Ananiashvili may have retired in a flower-strewn farewell performance from American Ballet Theatre last year, but the seemingly ageless ballerina is still dancing with the State Ballet of Georgia, the company she has directed since 2004 in her native land. That’s Georgia as in the former Soviet Republic—and the birthplace of George Balanchine. And she’s back in town to offer New Yorkers a quick glimpse of her company, last seen here performing two programs at BAM in 2008.
The Saturday performance at Avery Fisher Hall will not only offer Ananiashvili’s many devoted fans a chance to see her dance and showcase the development of her company (13 dancers will join her), but it also provides a fascinating look back at two earlier works by the preeminent ballet choreographer of the moment, Alexei Ratmansky—who has provided several of the year’s most memorable dance highlights: The Bright Stream at ABT and The Little Hump-backed Horse, which the Mariinsky Ballet brought to the Met. Ananiashvili spotted his talent back in the late 1990s, and began commissioning ballets from him for a touring ensemble she was leading. Thus were born Charms of Mannerism, a 1997 quartet set to Couperin music, and Dreams of Japan, created in 1998 and set to the Kodo drummers. Joining those works is Bizet Variations, which he also created for Ananiashvili, this time for the Georgian company in 2008. Live music for this performance (and one in Washington, D.C., the following evening) will be provided by seven members of the Orchestra of the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre.
Holding forth at a crowded Thursday reception in her honor at the Ana Tzarev Gallery, complete with stirring Georgian musical performances, Ananiashvili looked chic and ever-youthful with her bobbed hair, as young ballet students hovered, waiting to present her with large bouquets. Tomorrow evening she gets down to business, dancing along with her compatriots in the venture to which she now devotes her considerable talent and energy.
Nina Ananiashvili & State Ballet of Georgia
Nov. 5, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, 212-875-5030, www.lincolncenter.org; 7:30 p.m., $35+.