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"Beautiful eyes,” she had spoken, staring into the blue eyes of a riot policeman. “Kind eyes.” These words of unexpected tenderness, spoken in a moment of fear and confusion, now haunt her. “I regret saying it,” the ballerina admits. “They didn’t deserve my kindness.”

This moment is the paradox of Natia Bunturi: a dancer of breathtaking grace and now a protester hardened by the harsh realities of police violence. For nearly four decades, Natia dedicated herself to the delicate but tough discipline of ballet. Today, she stands on the front lines of Georgia’s fight for its European future, defiant against a government many say has betrayed its people.

The protests started on November 28, 2024, in response to Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s announcement that European Union (EU) accession talks would be postponed until at least 2028. This decision devastated a nation where over 80 percent of citizens support EU membership.

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Natia’s journey began in the harsh economic landscape of 1990s Georgia. “I am a '90s kid, and I have gone through these difficult times,” she shares, painting a picture of a childhood full of challenges but, at the same time, strength. Her talent later carried her to the United States, to Philadelphia’s ballet scene, but her heart always belonged to Georgia. “I’d watch the changes from afar — the Rose Revolution, the rebuilding of our Opera House — and I knew I had to come back,” she says.

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