ქართული კულტურის ცენტრის
" ფესვები"
დამფუძვნებელი და ქორეოგრაფი
Founder And Choreographer of
Georgian Cultural Center
" PESVEBI "
SHORENA BARBAKADZE
How was "PESVEBI" created
Shorena Barbakadze and Ivan Goderdzishvili came to the USA in 1998. Before their first child came into the world, they noticed that children born or newly arrived in New York were growing apart. They had no opportunity to meet, get to know each other and make friends.
Little Georgians are finally separated from each other
It would lead to alienation of these children from each other.
It was this situation that became the reason for the final decision that Vano and Shorena had to make.
A Georgian cultural center should be established.
where children and adults will learn Georgian dance and song. Young girls expressed their desire to learn Georgian dance with great joy. Indeed, within a few weeks, they had performed several dances at a holiday concert in an Orthodox church in Manhattan, and were well received by the crowd.
They deserved it.
Most importantly, this idea was well received by the Georgian congregation. Everyone, even those who had small children, even those who were young, came and expressed their desire to learn dancing and singing. That's how it began to be formed. '' PESVEBI ''
ART. DIRECTOR
IVAN GODERDZISHVILI
Development
Time passed and gradually a place where Georgian children met each other emerged.
Shorena's tireless and selfless work slowly began to bear fruit.
The children started speaking in Georgian, became friends with each other, and most importantly, the love of Georgian dance was awakened in their hearts.
They have already participated in various concerts.
For example, when the legendary ensemble "Iveria" came to New York for a tour, the producer expressed his desire for "Pesvebi" to participate. This historic day has come and the ensemble "Pesvebi" is performing on stage with great actors.
Gradually their number increased and their parents were very happy because of all this. The parents themselves got to know each other and this little Georgian center, which didn't even have a name yet and certainly didn't have its own home, became a place for many Georgians to meet, make friends, have relatives and families.
Our little American Georgians were already growing up in the Georgian environment, and their number, dance performance level and repertoire were also growing.
Father Alexander, pastor of St. Nino's church, as soon as he called for a concert dedicated to this or that religious holiday, would immediately appear there and participate in the event with great enthusiasm and responsibility.
Parents expressed their joy, often expressed satisfaction and noted with great joy that Shorena's studio was the only place where their children could keep their Georgian roots. Therefore
Shorena and Vano decided "Pesvebi" to be the name of their ensemble. The founder and editor of the only newspaper in America, Mr. Manuchar Katchakhidze, participated in the selection of this name. Mr. Manuchar always stood next to the "Pesvebi" and provided various kinds of help to the little Georgians. thus assigned to "Pesvebi"
this name. It is the name, because it is not just a name, it is also a title, along with the greatest responsibility.
CHOREOGRAPHER
JURKHA LOMTADZE
Traditions
A few years passed unnoticed and the number of immigrants in
New York increased significantly.
Consequently, more students came to the "roots" to study dance and singing.
Before Vano was only engaged in creating dance music, now he has added singing and folk instrument lessons.
We wanted to show our whole year's work to the immigrant hunters and we chose the day. Independence Day of Georgia, May 26.
The final concert of the Georgian song and dance ensemble "Pesvebi" was held in the Millennium Theater. In addition to the children, singers of the older generation of immigrants took part.
After that, every May 26, the "Pesvebi" ensemble held a concert.
During these years, excellent dancers worked with the boys in the ensemble:
Gaga Natsvlishvili,
Gogita Tatulashvili,
Gia Mikeladze,
Aleko Nadareishvili.
Since 2011, Jurkha Lomtadze has taken the lead of his sons and works tirelessly to teach Georgian children born in US and make them fall in love with Georgian dance.
Shorena leads the work with the girls without any help.
GIORGI GODERDZISHVILI
DANCE INSTRUCTOR
Culture Center "Pesvebi"
Since 2011, dance and song have added:
Georgian reading and writing,
folk choir
folk instruments,
ballet class,
piano,
Chess
theatrical speech,
Drawing and vocal class.
Due to such a busy schedule, the children had to stay in the "Pesvebi" studio for a long time, and in order not to fall behind the school program, Shorena and Ivan invited Levan Namichheishvili to the studio, who perfectly helps the children with homework.
in the preparation of the task and in the study of English language and mathematics.
Thus, the function of the ensemble "Pesvebi" increased and the responsibility of the cultural center was assumed.
In the summer of 2013, the "Pesvebi" company took 105 students to the final concert. Five generations stood on the stage, and they were all brought up as Georgians, as a result of the efforts of their parents and the hard work of the "Pesvebi" team of teachers.
To this day, Shorena Barbakadze is at the head of all this with her husband, Ivan's , and she is still handling the responsibility with great success.
The first tour trip to the homeland
The spring of2015 has arrived. By this time, more than 700 children have been taken care of by "Pesvebi". The students of the first generation have grown up. They held hundreds of concerts in different states and cities of the USA, introduced Georgian culture to thousands of American audiences. Besides being lawyers, medical workers, military personnel, architects and psychologists, they are also perfect and warm-hearted Americans and Georgians. Many of them got married. They created the best family, they had children and they are raising them according to Georgian traditions. Many Georgian families were founded. Every teacher of "Pesvebi" feels great joy and happiness because of all this.
"Pesvebi" continues to work and with God's help the result is successful.
Big preparations started. "Pesvebi" is preparing for a tour in Georgia. Many of the students have not been to Georgia. Far from Georgia, an ensemble of Georgian children born in a foreign country, with full academic degrees and repertoire, has never come to Georgia from any country. It was "Pesvebi" that became the first ensemble that managed to do this and arrived in the homeland with a 2-hour program. The natural tragedy that happened in Tbilisi on June 13, 2015 filled all of Georgia with sadness, and we too, because many people died in the terrible disaster.
Shorena took 50 dancers of the "Pesvebi" ensemble and went to Georgia to hold a charity concert to express as much as possible her support for those affected by the disaster. They were hosted by the President of the Women's Business Association, Mrs. Nina Kochiashvili. He provided everything to the ensemble for which we will always be grateful to him.
In the Griboyedov Hall, "Pesvebi" performed perfectly in front of the audience. The excellent children's choreographic ensemble "Sioni" led by Kakha Dgebuadze and Mzeko Jayani also took part. The children of "Pesvebi" and "Sioni" got to know each other and gave souvenirs to each other. The hall was completely filled with spectators. People were asking for a repeat concert. The children knew very well how much responsibility they had taken. Many of them were in Georgia for the first time and met their relatives right before the concert. The money received from the concert was completely donated to the 10-member family of the girl who died on June 13.
Apart from Tbilisi, concerts were held in Batumi and Kobuleti, where our young Dancers also received great approval.
After the concerts, they rested in Batumi. They swam in the sea and spent unforgettable days.
the musical
THEATRICAL PRODUCER
NIKOLOZ SABASHVILI
In November 2016, "Pesvebi" specially invited from Georgia
The talented and very successful director, Mr. Nikoloz Sabashvili.
The director accepted our offer with great joy and decided to stage a musical play called "Legend of Georgia". Mr. Nikoloz staged the play in just 5 weeks and turned our children into actors. The performance used songs in Georgian and English that ivan Goderdzishvili created especially for this performance. We invited an excellent dancer and choreographer, former student of Pesvebi, Vako Gvelesiani. who taught children hip-hop style. His dances were used in the musical. On December 24, 2016, the musical "Legend of Georgia" was held with great success in the
Symphony Space hall, which is located on Broadway in Manhattan, where not only the children of "Pesvebi" participated, but also professional actors: Giorgi Kakauridze, Nino Imedidze, Lasha Zalkaliani, Soso Toloraia. Also singers and musicians: Nodar Obolashvili, Gia Janiashvili, Givi Khosroshvili, Dato Ambrosidze, Giorgi Khizanishvili, Giga Amiranashvili, Irakli Datuadze, Irakli Sharadze and Natalia Goderdzishvili. The audience could not hide their admiration. This success laid the foundation for new projects. In exactly one year, Mr. Nikoloz Sabashvili visited New York again and started working with his Pesvebi on the musical
"Tsuna and Tsrutsuna". In December 2017, several more professionals were added to the actors and musicians invited in 2016: Irakli Beglarashvili, Nika Eliava, Giorgi Potskheria, Giorgi Todria and Naniko Kvaratskhelia. Director Nikoloz Sabashvili created a new version of the musical "Tsuna and Tsrutsuna", where new characters appeared, new themes and musical compositions appeared.
On December 26, 2017, the musical "Tsuna and Tsrutsuna" was held with great success on the stage of the Master Theater in Brooklyn, all tickets were sold out, people are excited. Everyone reported the samething. the quality was top notch and everyone was very satisfied.
On June 12, 2017, "Pesvebi" turned 16 years old.
In connection with this anniversary, "Pesvebi" held a grand concert in the Master Theater. 1400 places were filled. The concert is attended by representatives of the General Consulate of Georgia, Brooklyn City Hall and the Representatives in the field of culture, as well as clergy of the North American Diocese. Everyone noted how important and important "Pesvebi" are for Georgian children born in US, for their cultural development and proper formation. For 3 hours, the enthusiastic hall applauded continuously. Everyone who has ever danced in "Pesvebi" performed on the stage. Dancers came from different states to participate in this event. The presenters of the concert were the founder and editor of the Georgian magazine "Mamuli" Manuchar Katchakhidze and Mariam Chubinidze, an excellent singer raised by "Pesvebi". The concert was held in Georgian and English. Dances were performed to live music by Irakli Beglarashvili, Givi Khosroshvili, Nodar Obolashvili, Nika Eliava, Irakli Sharadze, Soso Toloraya, Nato Goderdzishvili, Raul Mshvidaldze, Gia Janiashvili, Dato Ambrosidze, Dato Ramishvili and Ivan Goderdzishvili.
In 2019, we opened Pesvebi new branches in Springvalley NY and
Marlboro NJ. The number of members of our studios increased every day.
In 2020, everything in the world stopped because of the pandemic. We also stopped working, but our culture center was one of the first to start conducting classes remotely through video connections.
Even in this difficult period, many students joined us for video lessons. We were able to make a short movie about our center during this terrible time.
Fortunately, the pandemic is over and classes have been fully resumed in our studios.
On February 5, 2023, we held a Pesvebi's solo concert at the Oceana Theater. our branches of springvalley Ny, Brooklyn NY and Marlboro NJ. participated.