Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Baryshnikov
File:Danilova-baryshnikov.jpg Alexandra Danilova and Mikhail Baryshnikov in the Hamburg Opera House, 1976.
Born	Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov
Years active	1977 - present
Spouse	Lisa Rinehart

For the Russian athlete, see Aleksandr Baryshnikov.

Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov (Russian: Михаил Николаевич Барышников) (b January 27, 1948) is a Russian dancer, choreographer, and actor. He is often called the world's greatest living male ballet dancer. Critic Clive Barnes once called him "the most perfect dancer I have ever seen" .

Biography

Early life

Baryshnikov (whose name is sometimes transliterated as Baryshinikov or Barishinikov) was born to Russian parents in Riga, in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. His father was an engineer and his mother a seamstress. When he was twelve, his mother committed suicide leaving him to be raised by his father and his grandmother. Mikhail remembers his childhood as being a relatively happy one, in which he attended the local public schools and was active in swimming, track, and soccer. He remembered having liked ballet, but thinking it was difficult to understand, and he paid no particular attention to it. His mother, however, was very fond of it, and in 1960, when he was twelve, she enrolled him in School of the Theatre Opera Ballet in Riga. He also engaged in academic pursuits there. During this time, Baryshnikov learned to speak French fluently and for a while aspired to be a concert pianist. In time, he became enamored with dance over piano, and, as a result of his own interest and his success in school presentations, he decided to follow a career as a dancer.

Dancing career in the Soviet Union

In 1963, during a visit to Leningrad, he applied to the famous Vaganova Ballet Academy. He was admitted and joined the class of Aleksandr Pushkin, who had earlier trained Rudolf Nureyev. Baryshnikov recalled later that Pushkin was "like a father" to him. Upon completing his studies, in 1966, he joined Leningrad's Kirov Ballet. Despite tradition, he did not first serve as an apprentice in the corps de ballet, but made his professional debut as a soloist, in Giselle. That same year he won the gold medal at the Varna, Bulgaria, international ballet competition. Upon returning to Leningrad, he continued his pattern of success. After only two years as a professional, he was given his first leading role in Oleg Vinograd's Gorianka, a part written specifically for Baryshnikov. That same year, he received the gold medal at the first international ballet competition in Moscow and also the Nijinsky Award. He became the youngest dancer to receive the State Award for Merit of the U.S.S.R., While in Russia, he partnered with Irina Kolpakova, whom many considered the greatest living classical ballerina, in such ballets as Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Coppélia, Flames of Paris, and Don Quixote, and he created roles in Vestris (1969), in which he portrayed Auguste Vestris, and Creation of the World (1971), a new satirical religious opera in which Baryshnikov played Adam to Kolpakova's Eve. However, at this time, his existing desire to work with more Western choreographers, as well as his concerns about what he saw as the decline of the Kirov Ballet, led to an increased restlessness in him.

Defection and dancing career in North America

While on a tour in Canada with the Kirov Ballet in 1974, Baryshnikov defected, requesting political asylum in Toronto. He later stated that Christina Berlin, an American friend of his, helped engineer his defection during his 1970 tour of London. His first performance after coming out of temporary seclusion in Canada was with the National Ballet of Canada in a televised version of La Sylphide. He then went on to the United States.

From 1974 to 1979, he was principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), where he partnered with Gelsey Kirkland. He also worked with the New York City Ballet, with George Balanchine. He also toured with ballet and modern dance companies around the world for fifteen months. Several roles were created for him, including roles in Opus (1971) and The Dreamer (1979), by Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, Rhapsody (1980), by Balanchine and Frederick Ashton, and Other Dances (with Natalia Makarova) by Sir Antony Tudor. He returned to ABT in 1980 as dancer and artistic director, a position he held for a decade. On July 3, 1986, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. From 1990 to 2002, Baryshnikov was artistic director of the White Oak Dance Project, a touring company he co-founded with Mark Morris.

Dancing style

Baryshnikov was a unique dancer in many ways. He was short and thus had to work hard to prove his suitability for roles such as Siegfried in Swan Lake where a taller, more noble bearing was expected. Although he once stated that "It doesn't matter how high you lift your leg. The technique is about transparency, simplicity and making an earnest attempt.” His dancing was renowned for its textbook form, technical brilliance, and emotional detachment.

Use of "bravada," meaning masculine, daring dancing.

He was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors in 2000. As of 2004, he is actively involved in the establishment of the Baryshnikov Arts Center in a new performing arts complex in New York City.

Family

He has a daughter, Alexandra Baryshnikova (born 1981), from a previous relationship with actress Jessica Lange. When Baryshnikov and Lange met, he was able to speak very little English, and they had to communicate by using French instead. Baryshnikov is currently in a long term relationship with former ballerina Lisa Rinehart, and they have three children: Sofia, Anna, and Peter. In an interview with Larry King, Baryshnikov said that he didn't believe in marriage because the commitment that people make to each other doesn't have anything to do with a legal marriage. He stated that he wasn't religious, so standing in front of an altar would not mean anything to him. [1].

Film and television

Throughout his acting career, Baryshnikov was noted in particular for his first film role in the 1977's The Turning Point where he received an Oscar nomination . Additionally, he starred in the 1985 film White Nights, choreographed by Twyla Tharp, and the 1987 film Dancers. He played Carrie Bradshaw's (Sarah Jessica Parker) boyfriend, Aleksandr Petrovsky, in the last season of Sex and the City.

During the Christmas season of 1977, he is accredited with having brought his highly acclaimed production of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet The Nutcracker to television, and it has remained to this day the most popular and most often shown television production of the work. Gelsey Kirkland, Alexander Minz and the American Ballet Theatre also starred. The production was videotaped in Canada and first shown on TV by CBS. It then began appearing on PBS, where it received annual television showings every Christmas season for many years. It is only one of two versions of "The Nutcracker" to be nominated for an Emmy Award, the other being "The Hard Nut," Mark Morris's intentionally exaggerated and satirical version of the ballet. Afterwards, Baryshnikov appeared in two Emmy-winning television specials on ABC-TV, in which he danced to music from Broadway and Hollywood, respectively. During the 1970s, he appeared many times with American Ballet Theatre on Live from Lincoln Center. On May 11, 2006, he received an Honorary Degree from New York University.

For the duration of the 2006 Summer, he went on tour with Hell's Kitchen Dance, which was sponsored by the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Featuring works by Baryshnikov Arts Center residents Azsure Barton and Benjamin Millipied, the company toured the United States and Spain.

On November 2, 2006, Baryshnikov and chef Alice Waters were featured on an episode of the Sundance Channel's original series Iconoclasts. The two have a life-long friendship. They discuss their lifestyles, sources of inspiration, and social projects that make them unique. During the program, Alice Waters visit's Baryshnikov's Arts Center in New York City, then later the Hell's Kitchen Dance tour brings him to Berkeley to visit Alice Waters' restaurant Chez Panisse.

References

• Cambridge Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

External links

• Mikhail Baryshnikov at IMDb
• Kennedy Center Honors biography as of 2000
• Baryshnikov Dance Foundation
• Backstage with Baryshnikov by Michael Dare

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