Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Baryshnikov, born in 1948, Soviet-born dancer, noted for his technical prowess and engaging stage personality. Born in Rīga (in present-day Latvia), Baryshnikov studied ballet there and in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), joining the Kirov Ballet in 1967. As a soloist and later as a principal dancer with the Kirov, he appeared in classical ballets, setting new standards for technical virtuosity. He also created roles in newly choreographed ballets, including Vestris (1969), Hamlet (1970), and The Creation of the World (1971).

Baryshnikov defected to the West in June 1974 while touring Canada with the Bolshoi Ballet. He soon joined the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), and his United States debut took place in July 1974 opposite Natalia Makarova in an ABT production of Giselle. During the next four years Baryshnikov performed leading roles in a broad array of works, both classical and modern, ranging from Michel Fokine’s Le spectre de la rose to Twyla Tharp’s Push Comes to Shove. As choreographer-director he also mounted and performed in his own full-length productions of The Nutcracker and Don Quixote.

Baryshnikov joined George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet in 1978. He danced leading roles in Balanchine’s Apollo, Prodigal Son, Orpheus, and Harlequinade, among others, and in several works of choreographer Jerome Robbins. In 1980 he became artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre, a post he held until 1989. As an actor, Baryshnikov appeared in the motion pictures The Turning Point (1978), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, and White Nights (1985). He was nominated for a Tony Award for his characterization of a man-turned-cockroach in a 1989 stage adaptation of Franz Kafka’s story The Metamorphosis.

From 1990 to 2002 Baryshnikov directed and danced with the White Oak Dance Project, a modern dance company he founded with dancer and choreographer Mark Morris. The group initially performed only works by Morris but then expanded its repertoire to include choreography by Robbins, Tharp, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Hanya Holm, and others. The White Oak Dance Project was the touring company of the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation, an organization established in 1979 that both commissions new works and preserves existing pieces from the dance heritage of the United States. The foundation opened the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City in 2005 to encourage experimentation and collaboration in the arts. Two years later Baryshnikov announced the addition of a small theatre to the enterprise. He was presented with a Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2000, one of many awards recognizing his talent and contribution to dance and the arts.