Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov, also known under the nickname "Misha", is a ballet dancer who belongs to the galaxy of the best ballet dancers of all times and peoples.
He began studying ballet at the age of eleven. Very soon he got great opportunities with famous choreographers and his performances brought him popularity in the Soviet Union. In his quest to explore contemporary dance, he moved to Canada in 1974 and then to the United States of America. Here he served as principal dancer and later as dance director of prestigious dance centers such as New York Ballet and American Ballet Theater. Throughout his career, he had the opportunity to work with such renowned choreographers as Oleg Vinogradov, Igor Chernikhov, Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey and Twyla Tharp.
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov was born on January 28, 1948 in Riga, in the family of engineer Nikolai Baryshnikov and dressmaker Alexandra.
At the age of 11 he began to practice ballroom dancing. In 1964 he entered the Leningrad School of Classical Ballet. A. Ya. Vaganova. He got the opportunity to study with the famous choreographer Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, the former mentor of Rudolf Nureyev.
In 1966, he won a gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Varna, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world.
Career in the USSR
In 1967, Mikhail Baryshnikov became a soloist of the ballet at the Theater of Opera and Ballet. Kirov in Leningrad (now - the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg). In a short time he became the leading artist of this theater and one of the favorites of the Soviet regime. He enjoyed many privileges - he received a high salary, was provided with a wonderful apartment in a good area and the opportunity to travel around the world.
Taking into account his versatility and perfection in technique, several choreographers have choreographed productions for him. Thus, he worked with directors Igor Chernichev, Oleg Vinogradov, Leonid Yakobson and Konstantin Sergeev.
Later, when he became the leading soloist of the troupe, he played the main roles in Goryanka (1968) and Vestris (1969). The roles he portrayed in these performances were exclusively choreographic for him and later became his hallmark.
Emigration
In 1974, during a tour of the Opera and Ballet Theater named after I. Kirov in Canada, he asked the US authorities for political asylum. Rudolf Nureyev and Natalya Makarova, who had previously also fled to the West, helped him in making the decision. After one of the performances in Toronto, the artist slipped out the back door of the theater and disappeared. He subsequently joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
In the two years after moving to Canada, he had the opportunity to work with several creative choreographers and explored the synchronization of traditional and modern techniques. During this period, he worked as a freelance artist with such popular choreographers as Alvin Ailey, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp and Jerome Robbins.
From 1974 to 1978 he worked at the American Ballet Theater as Principal Dancer in partnership with ballerina Gelsey Kirkland. During this period, he improvised and staged Russian classics - "The Nutcracker" (1976) and "Don Quixote" (1978).
From 1978 to 1979 he worked at the New York Ballet under the direction of choreographer George Balanchine. Here several ballet parts were developed for him, such as "Opus 19" by Jerome Robbins: The Dreamer (1979), "Other Dances" and "Rhapsody" by Frederick Ashton (1980). He also performed regularly with the Royal Ballet.
In 1980 he returned to American Ballet Theater and worked as artistic director until 1989.
From 1990 to 2002 he worked with the White Oak Dance Project, a touring dance troupe, as artistic director.
Since 2005, the artist has headed the Mikhail Baryshnikov Art Center, whose main mission he believes is the promotion of experimental art and for the professional development of young talents in the fields of dance, music, theater, cinema, design and audiovisual arts.
In 2006, he appeared on the Sundance Channel episode "Iconoclasts". The following year, an episode of Mikhail Baryshnikov and his art center was shown in the Pbs News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Films
Beginning in the mid-seventies, Mikhail Baryshnikov began to try himself in cinema, and already in 1977 for his role in the film "Turning Point", he was nominated for an Oscar.
no less box office success was the film "White Nights". And for his performance in the Broadway play Metamorphoses, he was nominated for a Tony Award.
Specially for it, for five years in a row, a series of programs has been created on one of the most popular American channels.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Baryshnikov played the role of the artist Alexander Petrovsky in the sixth season of "Sex and the City"
Awards & Achievements
In 1999 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2000, the US Congress awarded him the National Medal of Arts.
In 2003 he was awarded the Benois de la Danse Prize of the International Dance Association in Moscow for lifelong achievement.
In 2012 he received the Wilczek Dance Award from the Wilczek Foundation.
Personal life
The first time in emigration, Mikhail Baryshnikov was very difficult to handle. At home, he has a common-law wife, ballerina Tatyana Koltsova
But in the spring of 1976, Baryshnikov met actress Jessica Lange and very soon their daughter Alexandra was born.
For the second time, the dancer and choreographer married the ballerina Lisa Reinhart. In this marriage, three children were born - son Peter and daughters Anna and Sofia.
How does he live today?
During his life in exile, Mikhail Baryshnikov personally met with Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Diana, was on a short leg with Joseph Brodsky. He owns the Russian restaurant "Samovar", which is located in the heart of New York. He also owns a controlling stake in a factory for the production of pointe shoes and clothes for ballet, and his personalized perfume sells no worse than tickets for his performances.
In the fall of 2016, the dancer became the hero of the exhibition by photographer Robert Wiltman “Mikhail Baryshnikov. Metaphysics of the Body”at the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography.
In August 2017, the dancer entered the Top 100 influential Russians of this century, named by Forbes.
In 2017, Baryshnikov received Latvian citizenship. The Seimas of Latvia unanimously voted on this issue.
