Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov () (born January 28, 1948) is a famous Russian dancer, choreographer, and actor.

Baryshnikov (whose name is sometimes transliterated as Baryshinikov or Barishinikov was born in Riga, Latvia to Russian parents. His father was an engineer and his mother a seamstress.

He first entered the Vaganova Ballet Academy in 1960. Due to his talent, he joined Leningrad's Kirov Ballet in 1966. While touring Canada with the Bolshoi Ballet in 1974, Baryshnikov defected, requesting political asylum in Toronto. He then travelled to the United States.Natalia Makarova, A Dance Autobiography (Knopf 1979), p. 152.

From 1974 to 1979, he was principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), though he also danced with ballet and modern dance companies around the world. He then joined the New York City Ballet for fifteen months, working with choreographer George Balanchine. 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.

Baryshnikov was a unique dancer in many ways. He was short and thus never danced in ballets like Swan Lake where a taller, more noble bearing was expected. His dancing was renowned for its textbook form, technical brilliance, and emotional detachment.

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.

He has a daughter, Alexandra Baryshnikov, with actress Jessica Lange and three younger children (Sofia, Anna, and Peter) with former ballerina Lisa Rinehart.

Film and television

He received an Oscar nomination for his first film role, in 1977's The Turning Point. He starred in the 1985 film White Nights and the 1987 film Dancers. He played Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker)'s boyfriend, Aleksandr Petrovsky, in the last season of Sex and the City. He also brought his highly acclaimed production of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet The Nutcracker to television during the Christmas season of 1977, 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 later 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 Emmy Awards, the other one 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 1970's, he appeared many times with American Ballet Theatre on Live from Lincoln Center. On May 11th, 2006, he received an Honorary Degree from New York University.

He is spending the summer of 2006 on tour with Hell's Kitchen Dance, which is sponsored by the Baryshnikov Arts Center (http://www.baryshnikovdancefoundation.org/schedules_hellskitchen.html). Featuring works by Baryshnikov Arts Center residents Azsure Barton and Benjamin Millipied, the company is touring the United States and Spain.

External links and sources

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Film and television

External links and sources