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Quick Facts
- NAME: Mikhail Baryshnikov
- OCCUPATION: Ballet Dancer
- BIRTH DATE: January 27, 1948 (Age: 65)
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Riga, Latvia
- Full Name: Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov
- Nickname: Misha
- AKA: Mikhail Baryshnikov
- ZODIAC SIGN: Aquarius
Best Known For
Mikhail Baryshnikov is a Russian-American ballet dancer who choreographed several iconic pieces which have made him one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century.
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Mikhail Baryshnikov - Brilliant Ballet Dancer
Watch a short video about Mikhail Baryshnikov and how the man who's considered the greatest dancer of the 20th century escaped Russia.
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Play NowMikhail Baryshnikov. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 08:16, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/mikhail-baryshnikov-9201142.
Mikhail Baryshnikov. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/mikhail-baryshnikov-9201142 [Accessed 23 May 2013].
"Mikhail Baryshnikov." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 08:16 http://www.biography.com/people/mikhail-baryshnikov-9201142.
"Mikhail Baryshnikov," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/mikhail-baryshnikov-9201142 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Mikhail Baryshnikov," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/mikhail-baryshnikov-9201142 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Mikhail Baryshnikov [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/mikhail-baryshnikov-9201142.
Mikhail Baryshnikov, http://www.biography.com/people/mikhail-baryshnikov-9201142 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Mikhail Baryshnikov. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/mikhail-baryshnikov-9201142. Accessed May 23, 2013.
Synopsis
Mikhail Baryshnikov was born in Latvia in 1948. An experienced and respected ballet dancer in the Soviet Union during the 1960s, Baryshnikov was a beloved part of his nation. Unfortunately, the feelings weren't mutual at the time. He defected from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1974 in hopes of having a better opportunity to express himself creatively. His technique transcended any cultural barriers he experienced through immigrating,
Quotes
"Be yourself and dance with your mind and your body, the way it is right now."
"Working is living to me."
"I hate authority. I like to make my own mistakes."
"I am individualist and there it is a crime."
"[My father's] mannerisms, his military habits, I put them in my interpretation."
as Americans loved his precision and grace as a ballet dancer just as the Soviets did. Baryshnikov worked with the American Ballet Theatre until 1978 before becoming its artistic director in the '80s.
Early Life and Career
Born in Riga, Latvia, on January 27, 1948, Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov went on to become one of the leading dancers of the 20th century. Baryshnikov's early years were difficult. His father was a Soviet colonel, and the two didn't get along. As he explained to The New York Times, his father "was not a very pleasant man." However, Baryshnikov later drew inspiration from his father. "His mannerisms, his military habits, I put them in my interpretation," the dancer once said.
In his early teens, Baryshnikov lost his mother to suicide. He began studying ballet around this same time, and in 1963, at the age of 16, began training with distinguished choreographer Alexander Pushkin at the Vaganova Choreographic Institute.
In 1967, Baryshnikov made his stage debut with the Kirov Ballet in Giselle, later starring as the dance company's premier danseur noble in Gorianka (1968) and Vestris (1969). Choreographer Leonid Jakobson is said to have tailored Vestris to suit Baryshnikov specifically. The work is now considered to be one of the dancer's signature pieces. Baryshnikov landed his first major honor in 1966, winning a gold medal at the Varna, Bulgaria, dance competition, and went on to win another gold medal at the First International Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1969.
Dazzling audiences with his astounding physical and technical skills as well as his emotional expressiveness, Baryshnikov's fame quickly grew. By the late 1960s, he was one of the Soviet Union's leading ballet dancers.
World-Famous Dancer
Despite his fame, Mikhail Baryshnikov soon grew tired of the stifling atmosphere in communist Russia, and in 1974—following a performance of the Bolshoi Ballet in Toronto—defected from the Soviet Union to the West in search of greater personal and creative freedom. He later explained his departure from his native country to the New Statesman, saying, "I am individualist and there it is a crime."
In the United States, Baryshnikov joined the American Ballet Theatre, where he appeared in numerous productions. Audiences turned out in droves to see "his flawless, seemingly effortless classical technique and the extraordinary airborne maneuvers he executed with such zest and precision," as Laura Shapiro wrote in Newsweek.
Outside of ballet, Baryshnikov explored other professional opportunities.
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Famous Movie Dancers
View groupDance pioneers like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly—remembered for his groundbreaking performance in 1952's Singin' in the Rain—truly set the stage for Hollywood's dance-film genre. John Travolta, Jennifer Beals, Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey and Natalie Portman are some of the performers who took up where Astaire, Rogers and Kelly left off, repopularizing dance on film for later generations. Biography.com's Famous Movie Dancers group examines the lives and careers of these high-stepping performers who will always be remembered for their unforgettable moves.
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