Mikhail Baryshnikov Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov (Russian: ; produced January 27, 1948), nicknamed “Misha” (Russian diminutive of the name “Mikhail”), is a Russian dancer, choreographer, and performer, frequently mentioned alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as among the best ballet dancers ever. Following a promising beginning in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he deserted to Canada in 1974 for more chances in western dance. After freelancing with many firms, he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer to learn George Balanchine’s style of movement. He subsequently danced together with the American Ballet Theater, where he afterwards became artistic director.
Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic endeavors and continues to be linked in particular with encouraging modern dance, debut tons of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic performer on stage, film and television has helped him become most likely the most commonly accepted modern ballet dancer. In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as well as a Golden Globe nomination because of his work as “Yuri Kopeikine” in the movie “The Turning Point”. Additionally, he was in the past season of Sex and the City.
Baryshnikov was born in Riga, Latvia. Baryshnikov started his ballet studies in Riga in 1960. Baryshnikov shortly won the top prize in the junior section of the Varna International Ballet Competition. Understanding Baryshnikov’s ability, particularly the potency of his stage presence and innocence of his ancient technique, several Soviet choreographers, including Oleg Vinogradov, Konstantin Sergeyev, Igor Tchernichov, and Leonid Jakobson, choreographed ballets for him. Baryshnikov made touch characters of Jakobson’s 1969 virtuosic Vestris along with an intensely emotional Albrecht in Giselle. He also declared to the dancing world he’d not return to the U.S.S.R. He later said that Christina Berlin, an American buddy of his, helped engineer his defection during his 1970 tour of London. His first televised performance after coming from temporary seclusion in Canada was with the National Ballet of Canada in La Sylphide. Then he went to America.
Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Latvian Theater Award for Actor of the Year, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play, Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance - Variety Or Music Program, Drama Desk Award for ...
Movies
White Nights, The Turning Point, Dancers, Company Business, The Nutcracker (American Ballet Theatre), Happy to Be Nappy and Other Stories of Me, The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez, That's Dancing!, Baryshnikov Dances Sinatra, Baryshnikov Live at Wolf Trap, Place, Carmen, Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance A...
TV Shows
Sex and the City, Great Performances, Baryshnikov on Broadway, Great Performances: Dance in America
Star Sign
Aquarius
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Quote
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[on the difficulty of acting in front of the camera, encountered while working on _White Nights (1985)_, and the help he received from acting coach Sandra Seacat, whom he'd met earlier through Jessica Lange, from 12/6/85 Washington Post profile] One of the main things was she helped me relax in front of the camera. The best acting I did on the set was in the improvisations before the takes - that gave me real satisfaction. But keeping the level when the camera was going, that was completely something else. Technicians placing the camera, the director behind you, your throat is dry, and you're trying to forget everything, all distractions, and ask yourself what is this scene really about - that's when the hard work starts.
2
[on being directed by Dmitry Krymov in a play, 2011] I myself didn't agree with many of his choices. But I am not entitled to raise my objections. It's the same with a choreographer. If you commit, you should be a good foot soldier. This is not the place to be a general.
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Oh, that's nonsense. Sex symbol? A cup of tea will do it. Sex is overrated. Absolutely. Forget about it. A good golf game, a nice conversation with friends, will do better. - On what it is like to be an international sex symbol.
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That somebody has the vision to put a few steps together and make a dance out of it, there is already a certain power implanted. My job is much easier - it's just to put a light in it. - The Daily Telegraph, 09/02/2004
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I think I got disappointed over the years about New York, about the States. You know, sometimes you go and visit Europe and see good old socialism in its good part! You see public concern about art, and young people's participation and young faces in the audience. Then you arrive in the States and it is $150 to go to an opera. Ridiculous. We have so much young talent on the streets, but because everything is commercial they finally drift away from their dream of their life. - The Daily Telegraph, 09/02/2004
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Dancers are made, not born.
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No matter what I try to do or explore, my Kirov training, my expertise, and my background call me to return to dancing after all, because that's my real vocation, and I have to serve it.
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No one is born a dancer. You have to want it more than anything.
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[on the late Fred Astaire] "No dancer can watch him and not know that all the rest of us should be in a different business. Astaire is remote. It's as if he were in an incubator, breathing his own air. His perfection is like crystal: you can see through it. It's hopeless to try and imitate him."
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The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.
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I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself.
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There comes a moment in a young artist's life when he knows he has to bring something to the stage from within himself. He has to put in something in order to be able to take something out.
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I am not the first straight dancer, nor the last.
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Fact
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Is a fan of cigars.
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Enjoys fishing.
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He was Artistic Director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1980 to 1989, until they fired his right-hand man Charles France. Baryshnikov's successor was Kevin McKenzie.
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Appearing in dramatic roles in a series of one-act plays by Samuel Beckett, at the New York Theater Workshop. [December 2007]
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Taught by ballet instructor Bella Kovarsky when he was a child.
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Owner of ballet troupe, "White Oak Dance Project".
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Hobby is golf.
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His and Jessica Lange's daughter is Aleksandra (born 1981).
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He appeared in three of the ballet programs which were Emmy-nominated for "Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts" in the same year - "Giselle", "American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House", and "The Nutcracker". "Giselle" was the one that took home the Emmy, but "The Nutcracker" remains the one that has most often been shown and is consistently the most popular. The other two have not even been released on video or DVD, due to a royalties dispute about all "Live From Lincoln Center" programs.
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He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 2000 by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C.
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His name in English means "Michael."
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He had a romantic relationship with fellow Soviet defector and prima ballerina assoluta Natasha Makarova. She was eight years his senior. She ended it because of this fact and when she needed him back as a sympathetic shoulder to cry on, Baryshnikov was already involved with another young ballerina named Gelsey Kirkland.
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Daughter Shura (Aleksandra) Baryshnikov, whose mother is Jessica Lange, graduated from Marlboro College in Vermont, the same college that Chris Noth attended in the 70s. [2003]
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When he met Jessica Lange, he spoke little English. Fortunately for him, Lange spoke French, which he could speak fluently.
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Was nominated for Broadway's 1989 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for "Metamorphosis."
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Frequently attended legendary New York disco Studio 54.
$45 Million
