19 Facts About Vakhtang Chabukiani

Vakhtang Mikheilis dze Chabukiani was a Soviet and Georgian ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher.

Vakhtang Chabukiani is considered to be one of the most influential male ballet dancers of the 20th century, and is noted for creating the choreography of several of the most famous male variations of the classical ballet repertory, for example in Le Corsaire, La Bayadere, and Swan Lake.

Vakhtang Chabukiani is noted for his and Vladimir Ponomaryov's 1941 revival of La Bayadere for the Kirov Ballet, which is still retained in the company's repertory and has served as the basis for many subsequent productions in Russia and abroad.

Vakhtang Chabukiani continued his studies at the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute between 1926 and 1929.

Vakhtang Chabukiani debuted at the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad in 1929, and took part in the first Soviet ballets tours in Italy and the United States in the 1930s.

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Vakhtang Chabukiani quickly established himself as a skillful artist and became a leading soloist with the Kirov.

Vakhtang Chabukiani's rise to prominence in the 1930s enabled him to combine classic ballet with Georgian folk dance traditions to create a form of dance that is uniquely Georgian.

Vakhtang Chabukiani regularly challenged the refined delicacy of ballet and gave male dancers an active leading role in the work.

Vakhtang Chabukiani became renowned not only in Leningrad, but around the whole USSR.

Vakhtang Chabukiani was born with dance in his blood and probably returned some of his back to the dance.

Vakhtang Chabukiani takes possession of the whole scene, betrayed wonderful fury, sometimes dying down so that stunned the audience can see the body, as if was hewn by Rodin, you see the eagle which fell on the rocks of the Caucasus… Vakhtang Chabukiani is both a great classical dancer, the heir to all the traditions of Leningrad, and the embodiment of the rich folklore of his native Georgia….

In 1939, Vakhtang Chabukiani created the ballet Laurencia, based on the play Fuente Ovejuna by Lope de Vega and music by Alexander Krein.

Vakhtang Chabukiani played the role so well that his negative character began to be perceived as positive.

Communistic leaders accused him of playing incorrectly; the affair became political, and Vakhtang Chabukiani was expelled from the company and transferred to Tbilisi.

In 1941, Vakhtang Chabukiani returned to Georgia and served as the chief dancer and choreographer at the Tbilisi Theatre of Opera and Ballet until 1973, when he took charge of the Tbilisi Choreographic School.

Vakhtang Chabukiani played a major role in developing ballet in Georgia and in the training of a new generation of dancers.

Vakhtang Chabukiani was awarded the Lenin Prize, the second ballet artist after Galina Ulanova in 1957.

Vakhtang Chabukiani's Othello represents the simplicity, plainness, wisdom and child naivety.

Vakhtang Chabukiani invited Mikhail Dudko to perform the role of Brabantio in the film version, although his career had been ended by the Soviet regime.