20 July 2010 (Tbilisi) – The Rustaveli Theatre is entirely for the young students of the International Hall of Residence and the Delegation of Rondine. The elegance and the style are European, as if the theatre was just “Goldoni, Paganini, Giuseppe Verdi”, Italian artists that Georgian people mention with great admiration. In a corner of the hall, where the cocktail party for our students and their families is taking place, the little orchestra performs classical music from Europe, but it won’t continue for a long time. The Rustavely Theatre hides some surprises.

“Lot of  these faces belong to people I’ve known, but the faces that I haven’t known before belong to our students families. It’s like a whole family was gather here today, around our sons.” has explained President Franco Vaccari, beginning the friendship party in Tbilisi. “There is a kind of toast that usually students from Georgia make when they finish their experiences in Rondine and come back home. They say: when we arrived to Italy, we toasted for our family and now, by toasting, we’re leaving another family”.

It’s hard to imagine what setting one’s existence on an increasing undertaking means. An undertaking which is multiplying its effects, by expanding new possibilities of future for unknown countries and people.

The President of Rondine and the headmistress of the Hall of Residence, Lelia della Scala,  have a lot of friends who they had never seen before and, everywhere they go, they will find other friends.

Georgia celebrates Rondine as a part of its family due to all the results reached together with the Caucasus, for the young people and with the young people.

At once, here the dancers and folk musicians who arrive to the hall wearing their traditional dresses, voices and sounds, movements and dance steps which convey an old pride. A child, with his fur hat and his plus fours, jigs among the adults and receives the applauses of the audience, slipping out from the scene.

“I am proud of it!” says Maga, while delighted looks at the show which is greeting the delegation. The keeper of the night is Aleko, who stands by his uncle, a renowned Georgian actor.

Magomed gives a hint of some dance steps and he is beside oneself when he hears the sound of drums which beat time of his return.

Carlo, Aleko, Giga, Davit e Khatia, our Golden Rondini in Georgia, end the night together with us,  on the stage in the shade of the curtain. Everybody is hand in hand, three steps forwards and a big bow: to us and to Georgia!

AZ

Watch the video at the Rustaveli Theatre.