Getting to Know You . . . and Every Muscle Hurts : Dance: As part of a cultural exchange, the Georgian dancers are back in town--this time to teach San Diegans their demanding style of movement.

The organizers of last year’s Soviet Arts Festival envisioned the marathon event as a cultural bridge between the San Diego arts community and artists of the Soviet Union.

Apparently, the goal was accomplished--at least for the art of dance. When a Georgian-based folk dance ensemble showed its wares on the festival stage last October, the combination of vigorous male athleticism and graceful female gliding made Georgian dance the hottest ticket in town. And the local workshops that accompanied the formal concerts left choreographers on both sides of the cultural fence fascinated with the dances of their counterparts.

Now, just nine months later, a group of Georgian dancers is back on San Diego soil, but the dancers and their game plan are very different this time around.

The group that set up shop in San Diego late last week is a six- member delegation from the Georgian State Dance Company (a separate troupe from the Georgian ensemble that appeared at the festival). These artists are not here to strut their stuff on a concert stage. The six Georgians came to town to share their art and their artistry with local dancers--and to absorb a few American folk forms in return.

Tatiana Popova, the arts presenter who orchestrated this groundbreaking cultural swap with the Georgians, also served as liaison for the Georgian dancers at the festival last fall. But, as Popova explained, the only common denominator for the two projects is their objective--to promote a healthy cultural exchange between the two peoples.

Last weekend, the Georgian dancers taught one of several workshops slated for San Diego. Their eager students were dancers from the San Diego Folk Dance Ensemble, a local group dedicated to preserving and performing authentic folk dances from around the world.

During the intense three-hour session, the Georgians used every means at their disposal to break down the barriers between their demanding style of movement and the dances shown on American stages.

“My dancers have had a lot of exposure to Georgian folk forms,” said director Graham Hempel, in a break from rehearsals at San Diego State University’s Women’s Gym. Hempel is one of the most accomplished Georgian-style folk dancers in this country.

“But this is different,” he said.

“I had to learn what I know catch-as-catch-can, mostly from videos and from watching performances,” he said. “I never learned the steps from Georgians, and these (authentic forms) are much harder than what we perform here as Georgian dance.”

Popova laughed when asked about the probability of local dancers catching on to the traditional Georgian style during these crash courses.

“It’s difficult, and it requires a lot of discipline,” she said. “Their (the Georgian teachers’) expectation level is very high. But they’re ready to adapt. They want their dance represented in this country so badly. And they’re honored that we’re so interested in learning them.”

“We want to promote Georgian culture outside of Georgia,” said Ucha Dvalishvili, the top-ranking ballet master of the Georgian State Choreographic Institute, one of four choreographers and two musicians working with local groups.

“They (the Americans) don’t have the foundation, and that’s, of course, a problem. But we’ll train them in the primary movements. We won’t have time to do all the intricacies. The biggest problem is the language barrier,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.

The key to bridging the gap between teachers and students in this less-than-ideal learning setting involved show-and-tell. With the accent on show.

“There are two methods of teaching Georgian dancing--the theoretical and the practical methods,” Dvalishvili said. “We’re using the practical method, and showing them through movement.”

Exercising more patience than they would with Soviet students, the Georgians painstakingly demonstrated each phrase, repeating often in tandem with the group, while the temperature in the studio soared. Then, the choreographers corrected the dancers, turning arms and stiffening backs as the dancers kept pace with the music.

“Nothing should move, except below the knees. Americans want to move from the hips, and then they look like this,” said Dvalishvili, waddling like a duck to drive home his point.

“Dance like a Georgian woman,” he shouted, as the women in the group assembled for the final run-through of the narnari --a stately woman’s dance.

“It took me two weeks to learn one little step of their gliding movement when I went to the Soviet Union to study,” Popova said. “And my legs were hurting, because you use different muscles.”

June Dorr, the leading dancer in the San Diego-based folk ensemble, found this mini-course “a great experience,” but lamented that the language barrier added more frustrations.

“They demonstrate everything, and that helps a lot, though,” she said.

The Georgians are the only people in the world to put men on pointe. And teaching the toe step, which thrusts men up on the tip of their soft-booted shoes for bold, athletic dance routines, is a tough assignment for the Georgian teachers.

“If they’re flexible and have talent, it can be done,” Dvalishvili said. “We can teach them enough during these sessions. But they will have to keep working on it later. Not even all Georgians are capable of dancing on their toes. It takes the structure of the foot,” he said, explaining that a good line is essential.

The floating moves of the women are just as taxing, although they look deceptively simple. They require perfect control--and an internal tension that must never be reflected on their faces.

Lamira Sanikidze, the only Georgian woman in the delegation, acknowledged that it is a considerable challenge to prepare Americans to move with barely discernible steps (which make Georgian women appear to skim the surface of the floor like skaters), and at the same time to maintain a serene and elegant bearing. But the enthusiastic teacher shrugged that off--”no problem,” she said.

“The dancing reflects their culture,” said Popova. “Balanchine was Georgian,” she said, referring to the late choreographer who is considered to have been the greatest of our time. “And their dances influenced his development of modern ballet. However, ballet is only part of the movement.”

The group will teach ballet to American Ballet Ensemble July 19 and California Ballet during this visit, but those lessons will not be as technical as the Georgian folk dancing, Popova said.

Popova, whose letterhead reads, “Bringing Worlds Together,” began promoting a cultural exchange with the Soviets in 1984, long before San Diego’s Soviet Arts Festival was proposed.

“Right now, there’s a lot of interest in learning Georgian culture,” she said. “The opening up of relationships, and the Soviet Festival helped. We’re going back to Georgia in about a year--as part of the exchange--so they can learn American dances from our teachers.

“There’s not enough time for (the Georgians) to learn much on this visit. They’ll be busy teaching workshops. But they want to learn Appalachian, Mexican, tap dance, clogging, and country-Western style dancing--all the folklorico forms.”

During his triumphant stay in San Diego last year, the Georgian State ensemble’s director, Kaizer Kasradze, told the Times: “We’re happy to work with American dancers, and we’re planning to have lessons in American dances too. We think very soon in the future, we’ll be showing one of the American numbers in our Georgian performances.”

That prophesy may come true sooner than he expected, since the Georgians in residency now are “very good friends of the group that performed at the festival, and will probably share what they learn when they return,” Popova said.

“Dance is the diplomat here,” she said. “Not the politicians.”