SAMAYA. Resuscitated Fresco. This dance was based on the grace and characteristics of attire, typical to the national portraits, mainly to the portrait of Queen Tamar, preserved in the Georgian monumental medieval painting. Perhaps in none of the dances is there the choreographic arsenal of Sukhishvili and Ramishvili so stingy and monumental as in "Samaya". The whole choreographic sketches subordinate to the idea of the unity of three principles. In the movements you can feel royal moderation and calm power. The dancers' hands wordlessly emphasize the compositional centre - visionary vertical, which is presented to us as an allegory of the axis, uniting the celestial, earthly and underworld. This is one momentary, illusory flash of that mythical, just and powerful Georgia to which all Georgians are connected by a veil of nostalgia.

Choreography by I. Sukhishvili and N. Ramishvili. 1945.