Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov, also known by the nickname "Misha", is a ballet dancer who belongs to the galaxy of the best ballet dancers of all time.
He began to study 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 the main dancer, and then as the dance director of prestigious dance centers such as New York Ballet and the American Ballet Theater. Throughout his career, he had the opportunity to work with such famous choreographers as Oleg Vinogradov, Igor Chernikhov, Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey and Twyla Tharp.
Childhood and youth
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov was born on January 28, 1948 in Riga, in the family of engineer Nikolai Baryshnikov and dressmaker Alexandra.
At 11, he began to practice ballroom dancing. In 1964 he entered the Leningrad College of Classical Ballet. A. Ya. Vaganova. He got the opportunity to learn from the famous choreographer Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, a former mentor of Rudolf Nuriev.
In 1966, he won a gold medal at the International Ballet Competition in Varna, which is one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world.
Career in the USSR
In 1967, Mikhail Baryshnikov became a soloist in the ballet at the Opera and Ballet Theater. Kirov in Leningrad (now - 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 government. He enjoyed many privileges - received a high salary, was provided with a wonderful apartment in a good area and the ability to travel around the world.
Considering its versatility and technical excellence, several choreographers staged choreographic performances for him. Thus, he worked with directors Igor Chernichev, Oleg Vinogradov, Leonid Yakobson and Konstantin Sergeyev.
Later, becoming the leading soloist of the troupe, he played the main roles in Goryanka (1968) and Westris (1969). The roles that 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. Kirov in Canada, he asked the US authorities for political asylum. Rudolf Nuriev and Natalya Makarova, who had also fled to the West, also helped him in making the decision. After one of the performances in Toronto, the artist slipped through the back door of the theater, and disappeared. Subsequently, he joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
Two years after moving to Canada, he got the opportunity to work with several creative choreographers and explored the synchronization of traditional and modern technology. 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 in the American Ballet Theater as the main dancer in partnership with the ballerina Gelcy Kirkland. During this period, he improvised and staged Russian classics - The Nutcracker (1976) and Don Quixote (1978).
From 1978 to 1979 he worked in the New York Ballet under the direction of choreographer George Balanchine. Here, several ballet parties 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 the 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 been heading the Mikhail Baryshnikov Art Center, whose main mission is to promote 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.
Movies
Since the mid-seventies, Mikhail Baryshnikov begins to try himself in the 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 playing in the Broadway play Metamorphoses, he was nominated for a Tony Award.
Especially for him, for five consecutive years, a program cycle has been created on one of the highest-rated American channels.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Baryshnikov played the role of artist Alexander Petrovsky in the sixth season of “Sex and the City”
Rewards & Achievements
In 1999, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2000, the US Congress awarded him the National Medal of the Arts.
In 2003, he was awarded the Benois de la Danse prize of the International Dance Association in Moscow for his life's achievements.
In 2012, he received the Wilczek Dance Prize from the Wilczek Foundation.
Personal life
The first time in exile, Mikhail Baryshnikov was very difficult. In his homeland, he left a common-law wife, ballerina Tatyana Koltsova
But already in the spring of 1976, Baryshnikov met actress Jessica Lang and very soon their daughter Alexander was born.
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.
