Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov, nicknamed "Misha", is a Latvian-born Russian-American dancer, choreographer, and actor born in the Soviet Union, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers in history. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in western dance. After freelancing with many companies, he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer to learn George Balanchine's style of movement...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDancer
Date of Birth27 January 1948
CityRiga, Latvia
CountryUnited States of America
My father was a Party member and he was a pretty high rank military officer under the colonel, junior colonel, I don't know the term. He was a total Stalinist. A bit with a streak of anti-Semitism and very shrewd man, a very kind of nervous man.
It's what's left in life, to work with interesting people.
I like to go to anybody else's birthday, and if I'm invited I'm a good guest. But I never celebrate my birthdays. I really don't care.
Although I don't gamble in life - I've never played poker - I do gamble on stage. I gamble with myself: 'Can I do this?'
Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.
I cannot stand authority.
I was very restless. I really wanted to be a part of a kind of a progressive society. I was fed up with these Communist doctrines and you were hassled all the time with members of the Party committee who were KGB, what you have to do, where in the West you can go or not to go.
Nothing is ever too expensive if it furthers the repertoire and artistic standards of a dance company.
It's weird when you see pieces of choreography that were done for you 15 or 20 years ago and now they are being done by another dance company.
Dances have a second and third life. You feel they are never ready. They always have a chance for another life.
I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.
I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.
I go a lot to see young people downtown in little theaters. It's great. If you start somebody's career, it's so exciting.
You can be totally involved, you could admire just the shape of or you could be totally emotionally mushed up into the dance.