Name Maria Perini | Died 1939 | |
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Maria Perini (1873–1939) was an Italian ballet teacher who studied under the Italian ballet dancer and teacher Enrico Cecchetti. In 1916, she opened the first private ballet studio in the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts building (the former House of Arshakuni) at Griboedovi street, Tbilisi, Georgia. In 1920, it became the State Ballet School of Opera and Ballet Theatre, where she became a teacher and director. Perini grew up with several well-known artists, among them Vakhtang Chabukiani, founders of the Georgian National Ballet theater Iliko Sukhishvili and Nino Ramishvili, Tamar Chabukiani, and Solomon (Soliko) Virsaladze. She was married to the Polish-Georgian artist Henryk Hryniewski.
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Biography
Perini was born in Northern Italy and graduated from Turin Royal Opera ballet school. She performed alongside such well-known dancers as V. Zucchi, P. Lenian, E. Cecchetti (Cecchetti later (1892-1902) taught at the Royal Ballet School of St. Petersburg, where his students were A. Pavlova, V. Nijinsky, M. Fokine, O. Preobrajenskaya and other great dancers.) In 1891 Perini was invited to perform at the Tbilisi Opera Theatre as soloist. She was the first to perform 32 fouettes for the Georgian audience and showed virtuoso performance of ballet moves. In 1897 – 1907, she was prima ballerina at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, followed by pedagogical and concert activities. Her name is closely tied with foundation of Georgian Ballet school, while her methods of teaching classical dance together with generations she has raised, laid solid foundations for developing Georgian ballet.
Perini’s ballet studio
In 1922, in a house of merchant Arshakun, on the Commandant Street, the Academy of Arts of Georgia was founded. Till 1937, the wing of this building served as workshop of artist, professor of the academy-HenrykHryniewski- and as ballet studio for his spouse, brilliant Italian ballerina Maria Perini.
Hryniewski, a native Pole, got art education in Florence, and upon returning to Georgia became founder of the Tbilisi Academy of Arts, together with D. Chubinashvili, I. Nikoladze, E. Lanceres, A. Kalgin and others .In 1916, Hryniewski ‘s wife, Perini, established the first choreographic studio of classical dance in Tbilisi, where impressive ballet production of Coppeliaby Delibes, dance act from The Blue Birdby Maeterlinck were staged. The studio raised many masters of the Georgian ballet art, including Dimitri and Irina Aleksidze, Maria Bauer, Soliko Virsaladze, Nino Ramishvili, Iliko Sukhishvili, Vakhtang Chabukiani, Elene Chikvaidze, Maria Kazinets, Elene Gvaramadze and others.
In 1920 the studio was renamed “Ballet School of the State Theatre”. Perini was appointed as director, while N. Sergeev – ballet master at the St. Petersburg Opera Theatre – was invited as pedagogue. The tuition fee was not high, although kids from needy families were taught for free. In 1925 the studio presented a performance by students; poet I. Grishashvili wrote: “Student girls rushed around. You could see Perini’s caring hand in their dancing, as well as Sergeev’s and Arbatov’s artistic taste. Four proficient ballet artists girls were outstanding: L. Chikvaidze, L. Begtabegishvili, M. Bauer, L. Gvaramadze. Exceptional was V. Chabukiani with his passion, technique and temperament , who definitely has bright future ahead.” In 1927, the arts department of the National Committee for Education initiated an evening dedicated to 30 years anniversary of Maria Perini’s artistic and pedagogical work. The Opera Theatre hosted the performances of The Magic Lake and other choreographic etudes. Perini’s students remembered their teacher as a sincere, impartial, exciting person who dedicated all her life to establishing and developing classical ballet in Tbilisi, and recall their childhood as bright and beautiful thanks to her.
Prior to returning to Italy, Perini attended the premiere of the first Georgian ballet, staged by her student Vakhtang Chabukiani, in 1936. She was pleased to see that the Georgian ballet was in safe hands. The same year she was nominated as Honored People’s Artist of Georgian Soviet Republic, and was preparing for the occasion, but the Soviet authorities opted not to award the foreign citizen with this prestigious status. In 1937 her son Ferdinand Inochenz, who lived in Bryansk with spouse and two kids, became victim of the Stalin regime. Also exiled was spouse of Perini’s daughter – engineer at the metallurgy factory in Taganrog, while fate of her daughter is unknown to this day. Hrynewski himself could not survive political repressions of 1937 – this exceptional person and pedagogue was exiled to Siberia at the age of 68. He did not return. Hrynewski did not have children or relatives succeeding him, and his rich archives and art legacy was almost entirely lost.
Perini was also forced to leave Soviet Union, and had to sell everything to move first to Turin, and then to Nice where her sister had a guesthouse. Maria Perini died in Nice in 1938.