Biography of Mikhail Baryshnikov
Introduction
Mikhail Baryshnikov was born in 1948, in a place called Riga. In 1960, he started his ballet studies in the same place. He is a co founder of White Oak Project and a dance director. Mikhail Baryshnikov won a top prize in the junior division at a very tender age, an achievement that brought him into the lime light. He was named the ‘the most perfect dancer’ in Pushkin class, a characteristics that many others had not fitted in, in the history of that school. His unique talent and skills were noted right from then as his performance in dance industry was exclusive. He held the title of a principle dancer for almost a decade, a title that dancers do not hold for such a long time.
He introduced the modern dance to America, a dance that expressed his passion and what he felt for dance. This changed the obvious perspective of dance that most Americans had and they began to view dance in a Mikhail perspective, which was more professional. His performance was an eye opener to dancers that they do not have to dance to the same choreography; they were challenged that they could dance to diverse choreography and styles, which in turn brought more life and fun to the dance experience and industry as a whole (Backscheider 124). He explored artistic frontiers, a fact that impressed the dance industry as a whole and which made him famous and spectacular in the industry. He also made a debut with the American Ballet Theatre at an early stage of his career development which has remained in the dance industry records up to date. There he staged American Ballet Theatre productions like the famous nutcracker and Cinderella.
In 1967, he joined Kirov ballet and made a debut at the Maryinsky theatre, dancing the peasant in ‘Giselle’, and later several other choreographers like Oleg Vinogradov, Konstantin Sergeyev and Igor Tchernichov made debuts for him (Backscheider 125). In 1969 there came his calling card, Jacobson’s vestries, a feast that became Baryshnikov’s signature role. In 1974, he made a bold step of defecting from Soviet Union in search of freedom in his career in the West. In 1978, he left American Ballet Theatre for New York City Ballet where he could work with George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. He later returned to American Ballet Theatre in 1980 as a principal dancer and artistic director, where he provided even more professional services to the ballet theatre (Dale 26). He teamed up with Mark Morris and founded the White Oak project in 1990, a project that brought quality change in the dance industry and introduced modern dance.
Baryshnikov was a surprise to the industry as a whole because of his passion, zeal, attitude and determination to bring change into the dance industry, and obtain freedom also as an individual in his career. According to Dale (24), he danced to any choreography, like dancing to his own heartbeat, shows the extent to which his passion went. He changed the world with his talent and skills which apart from being professional could be termed as inbuilt considering the age at which his expertise was first noticed. He is one dancer that the dance industry has in its books of records as those dancers who danced with ease and without flaws. He worked for many different ballets, leaving one for another each time he left that his potential remained unexploited, a risk that many dancers feared to take.
Conclusion
Mikhail Baryshnikov remains a guru in the dance industry because of his enormous achievements and the great levels of impact he has had to the society as a whole and the dance profession. His legacy lives on as the dancer who danced perfectly.
Works Cited
Backscheider, Paula R. Reflections on biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Dale Salwak, ed. The Literary Biography. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1996.
