Nina Ananiashvili Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Nina Ananiashvili was an ice skating champion at the age of ten. She studied dance at the Choreographic School of Georgia before going to Moscow to study at the Moscow Ballet School from which she graduated in 1981.
She won a Gold Medal at Varna at the age of 17, as well as winning the First Prize and the Gold Medal at both the Fourth (1984) and Fifth (1985) International Ballet Competitions in Moscow, and the Grand Prix and Gold Medal at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi in 1986.
Upon graduation from the Moscow Ballet School, Miss Ananiashvili joined the Bolshoi Ballet where her repertoire includes Nikiya in La Bayadere (The Kingdom of the Shades), Kitri in Don Quixote, the title role in Giselle, Rita in The Golden Age, the title roles in the ballet/opera Mlada and in Raymonda, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, as well as The Dying Swan and A Dream of the Rose.
A People's Artist of the Georgian Republic, Miss Ananiashvili has danced in the United States with the New York City Ballet where she was the first Russian ballerina to appear in Balanchine's Apollo, Raymonda Variations and Symphony in C. She made her debut with the Boston Ballet in that company's Russian-American production of Swan Lake. In addition to appearances in the United States, she has danced with the Finnish National Ballet, the National Ballet of Portugal and The Royal Danish Ballet. She recently made her debut with The Royal Ballet in The Prince of the Pagodas and The Nutcracker. Miss Ananiashvili made her first appearance with American Ballet Theatre in the Spring of 1993, dancing Odette-Odile in Swan Lake. Her repertoire with the Company also includes Manon in Manon and the Sylph in La Sylphide.