Georgian Dance in Koblenz

Our whole extended family (15 of us) has been invited to a wedding next August in Georgia (at least eight of us are planning to attend), but not the state I grew up in, rather the much more exotic country on the Black Sea south of Russia.


                                                                                                               
So when Frank’s brother saw that a dance group from Georgia was performing in Hanover last week he went to see them. He was so delighted with what he saw that he convinced his wife to go see them the next night in Wolfsburg. They noticed that the troupe would be in our area too, so when we talked to them on Sunday they recommended very highly that we also go. They will be in Wiesbaden, which is just about 15 minutes from here, this coming Sunday, but we already have concert tickets for that evening, so we decided to go to Koblenz yesterday to see what all the fuss was about.

After thinking about it for a while I decided that I had never been to Koblenz. Frank’s been there a couple of times for court proceedings but hadn’t seen any of the town other than the train station and the court house. So we decided to go early and have a look around. We were very lucky with the weather. It was cold but the sun was shining in a perfect blue sky. We woke up this morning to several inches of snow and I’m not sure we would have made the trip in these weather conditions. We left home just before three on our bikes to catch the train to Mainz where we had to change to an intercity train. Standing on the platform waiting, it felt good to feel the (admittedly still feeble) warmth of the sun on our faces.

The trip from Mainz to Koblenz by train is a tourist’s delight. The tracks for much of the way are right along the Rhine and you have a wonderful view of a series of Rhine castles. Unfortunately the train was going too fast to snap any pictures, but they probably wouldn’t have been any good anyway because the windows weren’t clean enough. Which reminds me, while we were waiting on the platform in Mainz two Japanese businessmen who were also waiting started taking pictures of the train as it entered the station. I found that very amusing. It wasn't even one of the more modern engines.

The trip from Mainz takes just under an hour. We left the train station and started walking towards town. We had been warned that Koblenz was not the most attractive city around but I had also read that the old town was nice. Both of these statements turned out to be true. Most of Koblenz is a modern city with little or no charm and we walked a kilometer looking for a nice café to have coffee and warm up. We found a café that was okay, but by then our standards had fallen considerably. We should have stuck it out but we were so cold we had no will power left. And the cappuccino was fine, just the atmosphere was lacking. We were now just at the edge of the old town and when we entered it our judgment of Koblenz changed at once.


                                                                              
                                                                              
It was the perfect time just as it was really getting dark and all the lights were on, so that it looked a little magical. We immediately found the café of our dreams but decided to forego another cup of coffee in favor of exploring the area. The old town is just at the point where the Mosel River flows into the Rhine and we walked to the river for a spectacular view. We were charmed by the old town and although it’s not very big we were glad we had decided to visit it.

The ticket office opened at 6:30 so after we walked there and bought our tickets we wanted to have something to eat. It would be too late after the show, especially since we would have to hurry to catch the last train. I had the address of a presumably good restaurant from the internet that was right next to the concert hall, but we had no luck finding it. It didn’t matter because we found a very rustic, country inn style place just around back. I had a delicious salad with baked sheep’s cheese that was huge. Frank ended up eating a third of it, along with his herring dish.

The show was called The Fire of Georgian Dance  (the pictures are from their website) with the Georgian State Dance Company and they had been on a tour of Germany and Belgium since the beginning of December, 54 shows in 51 cities in two months. The company has been touring since 1948 and according to the program has been seen by over 50 million people. And what a show! It was amazing, spectacular. I can’t even begin to describe it adequately.

                                                                                                                                              
The costumes were beautiful and very colorful. There were up to 12 women dancing and they seemed to float across the stage with very expressive arm, hand and shoulder movements. It reminded me a little of Indian or Oriental dance.

                                                            
At the same time there were as many as 24 men on the stage, dancing, jumping, pirouetting, fighting and a band with two drummers, two accordion players, a percussionist, two playing wind instruments – not sure exactly what they were and they varied, one was about three feet long and looked like a horn - and a strange string instrument.

                                                                                                               
                                                                                                               
There were 20 different pieces, all with different costumes. My favorite piece was one in which the men fought with swords at an unbelievable pace and the sparks really flew! I’ve never seen anything like this in a live performance. They also did a knife dance, throwing knives into the ground at a tremendous speed. I guess they had to bring their own floor with them as I can’t imagine they would be allowed to do that otherwise.

It was well worth the trip and a great teaser for our journey to Georgia in the summer.