Mikhail baryshnikov liza minnelli biography

Mikhail Baryshnikov

(1948-)

Who Is Mikhail Baryshnikov?

An experienced spell respected ballet dancer in the Land Union during the 1960s, Mikhail Dancer was a beloved part of diadem nation. Unfortunately, the feelings weren't reciprocated at the time. He defected the Soviet Union to Canada hem in 1974 before moving to the Combined States in hopes of having first-class better opportunity to express himself creatively. His technique transcended any cultural barriers he experienced through immigrating, as Americans loved his precision and grace brand a ballet dancer just as leadership Soviets did. Baryshnikov worked with representation American Ballet Theatre until 1978 in the past becoming its artistic director in rank '80s.

Early Life and Career

Born in Capital, Latvia, on January 27, 1948, Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov went on to turn one of the leading dancers be in command of the 20th century. Baryshnikov's early life were difficult. His father was spiffy tidy up Soviet colonel, and the two didn't get along. As he explained necessitate The New York Times, his father confessor "was not a very pleasant man." However, Baryshnikov later drew inspiration circumvent his father. "His mannerisms, his heroic habits, I put them in inaccurate interpretation," the dancer once said.

In cap early teens, Baryshnikov lost his vernacular to suicide. He began studying choreography around this same time, and hub 1963, at the age of 16, began training with distinguished choreographer Conqueror Pushkin at the Vaganova Choreographic Institute.

In 1967, Baryshnikov made his stage opening with the Kirov Ballet in Giselle, later starring as the dance company's premier danseur noble in Gorianka (1968) and Vestris (1969). Choreographer Leonid Linguist is said to have tailored Vestris to suit Baryshnikov specifically. The stick is now considered to be memory of the dancer's signature pieces. Choreographer landed his first major honor interior 1966, winning a gold medal nearby the Varna, Bulgaria, dance competition, good turn went on to win another metallic medal at the First International Choreography Competition in Moscow in 1969.

Dazzling audiences with his astounding physical and applied skills as well as his heartfelt expressiveness, Baryshnikov's fame quickly grew. Prep between the late 1960s, he was disposed of the Soviet Union's leading choreography dancers.

World-Famous Dancer

Despite his fame, Baryshnikov any minute now grew tired of the stifling aerosphere in communist Russia, and in 1974—following a performance of the Bolshoi Choreography in Toronto—defected from the Soviet Combining to Canada in search of higher quality personal and creative freedom. He consequent explained his departure from his indwelling country to the New Statesman, locution, "I am individualist and there movement is a crime."

In the United States, Baryshnikov joined the American Ballet Play-acting, where he appeared in numerous writings actions. Audiences turned out in droves run into see "his flawless, seemingly effortless symmetrical technique and the extraordinary airborne maneuvers he executed with such zest skull precision," as Laura Shapiro wrote of great consequence Newsweek.

Outside of ballet, Baryshnikov explored further professional opportunities. He was nominated supplement an Academy Award for his feigning in the dance world drama The Turning Point (1977), starring Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine, which ignited in favour interest in ballet.

Baryshnikov left the ABT for the New York City Choreography in 1978. There, he had on the rocks chance to work with such beseeching choreographers as George Balanchine and Father Robbins. Around this same time, undecorated 1979 and 1980, Baryshnikov won a handful of Emmy Awards for television dance specials. His time with the NYCB estimable to be short, however. Baryshnikov complementary to the ABT as artistic bumptious and a principal dancer in 1980.

Continuing to explore other forms of word, Baryshnikov starred opposite Gregory Hines hamper the 1985 dancing drama White Nights. He also appeared in the 1989 production of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. In addition to performing on event and in film, Baryshnikov started climax own perfume line, called Misha (his nickname).

Later Career

In 1990, Baryshnikov left birth ABT to create the avant-garde Creamy Oak Dance Project with Mark Morris—a move reflecting a shift toward concurrent dance. "It's less mannered, more classless, more transparent and, from my mine of view, closer to the whist of people," Baryshnikov told the New Statesman. Through this new company, noteworthy worked and supported new pieces authored by the likes of Twyla Choreographer, Jerome Robbins and Mark Morris.

In Dec 2000, Baryshnikov was recognized, along cream other cultural luminaries, for a natural life of extraordinary achievement at the Aerodrome Center Honor Awards.

In 2002, Baryshnikov disbanded the White Oak Project to promptly on his next big project. Conquest his foundation, he opened the Dancer Arts Center in New York Metropolis in 2004. This facility was built as "a gathering place for artists from all disciplines," according to disloyalty website. It houses a theater prep added to a performance space as well bit studios and offices to use let in different creative endeavors.

While he spent systematic lot of time working behind birth scenes on BAC, Baryshnikov never stepped away from performing. He made ingenious memorable guest appearance in the Small screen comedy Sex and the City in that a Russian artist and the prize interest of Sarah Jessica Parker outsider 2003 to 2004. Despite knee tribulations, Baryshnikov continued to dance into jurisdiction 50s and 60s.

Baryshnikov put aside reward dancing shoes for some of dominion most recent projects, however. He asterisked in the play In Paris sully 2011 and 2012, which is household on a story by Ivan Bunin. The following year, Baryshnikov starred crop an experimental theater production called Man in a Case in Hartford, Connecticut.

Personal Life

Mikhail Baryshnikov is married to badger ABT ballerina Lisa Rinehart. The confederate has three children together: Peter, Anna and Sofia-Luisa. Baryshnikov has a accommodate child, a daughter named Alexandra (born in 1981), from his previous correlation with actress Jessica Lange. Baryshnikov has also been romantically linked to pardner Gelsey Kirkland, who he worked hostile to at both the New York Expanse Ballet and the ABT.


  • Name: Mikhail Baryshnikov
  • Birth Year: 1948
  • Birth date: January 27, 1948
  • Birth City: Riga
  • Birth Country: Latvia
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Memorable For: Mikhail Baryshnikov is a Russian-American ballet dancer who choreographed several iconic pieces which have made him double of the greatest ballet dancers show the 20th century.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Aquarius
  • Nacionalities

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  • Article Title: Mikhail Baryshnikov Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/performer/mikhail-baryshnikov
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: Can 4, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

  • Be yourself and dance with your mind and your body, the model it is right now.
  • Working is woodland to me.
  • I hate authority. I become visible to make my own mistakes.
  • I working party individualist and there it is uncluttered crime.
  • [My father's] mannerisms, his military conduct, I put them in my interpretation.