A small 15- or 20-minute piece can cost tens of thousands of dollars. It's an enormous amount of money for a sometimes very modest project.
Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.
Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.
Dancers are stripped enough onstage. You don't have to know more about them than they've given you already.
Dancing is my obsession. My life.
Every ballet, whether or not successful artistically or with the public, has given me something important.
For a classical premier, for the leading dancer, I was a bit small.
Here, people pay a lot of money to go to a shrink. In Russia, you visit your friend at 3 o'clock in the morning and talk to him.
I am a bit of an absent father because of my profession and my travel schedules, and there's a guilt.
I am not the first straight dancer or the last.
I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.
I did some mistakes, but I was not helped by the management, by the press, and not by the dancers.
I do not ever get involved in any political sides. I don't understand a lot of things that have happened, the bitter lessons of democratic reforms.
I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.
I get speeding ticket like everybody else. If the restaurant is full I'm waiting in line like everybody else.
I go a lot to see young people downtown in little theaters. It's great. If you start somebody's career, it's so exciting.
I golf. It's helped me really to calm myself down a lot.
I had a few operations, five or six in my right knee. I am in pretty good shape. I can do full out without any cheating, so to speak.
I have been very lucky to work in so many new ballets, but that is what a dancer's work is.
I have some Russian friends. But probably only 10 percent. I don't hang out usually in the big Russian communities in Brooklyn and New Jersey.
I have witnessed occupation. I know how people can hate each other. I've been there. They were my friends.
I kind of lost interest in the classical dance. I was very much interested in the modern choreography.
I like the most provocative and most surprising partnerships on stage. Intensity and surprise.
I realized very soon after The Turning Point that I really do not belong. It was a curiosity and admiration of what was produced in Hollywood.
I really reject that kind of comparison that says, Oh, he is the best. This is the second best. There is no such thing.
I started dancing, my first memories, the day of the revolution, there was a military parade.
I stepped out when I was in my early 40s from the world of classical ballet. It was my retirement.
I stopped smoking cigarettes over 15 years ago. That's an addiction, a sick addiction.
I think art education, especially in this country, which government pretty much ignores, is so important for young people.
I tried to understand the news, James Cagney movies.
I want to do exactly what I want to do. I'd rather gamble on the box office than beg for a grant.
I want to see people dance, and I would like to guess what kind of people they are. I don't want to know the recipe for their pasta.
I was a little Russian boy, son of the occupant.
I was director of American Ballet Theater for close to 10 years. It was a bit of a dramatic exit, but mostly failure.
I was never married. The commitment to people, it's nothing to do with marriage.
I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
I went back to Latvia. My mother is buried there, and I actually performed a couple of shows.
I'm looking now at situation in Palestine, and I understand how both sides feel because I lived under the occupation.
I'm not an actor. I tried very hard to be on the level, but I am not an actor.
I'm not legally married, but I live with my partner, wife or girlfriend.
If your only dance experience is the Nutcracker, it will be a shock; hopefully shocking in a good way.
It doesn't matter how high you lift your leg. The technique is about transparency, simplicity, making an earnest attempt.
It's a bit scary, but I don't think I'm going to hit 60.
It's weird when you see pieces of choreography that were done for you 15 or 20 years ago and now they are being done by another dance company.
It's what's left in life, to work with interesting people.
It's wonderful. But it's almost over, and I'll have to stop. I will do something else, maybe related to the theater.
Journey is not like anything else. It's beautiful and simple; childlike, almost, but there's a Zen aspect, like back to the bicycle.
Just sit and open your eyes and open your heart. It's dance theater.
Latvian I forgot right now. But you know, I speak French.
Lucinda Child's work is highly structured, every beat is precise, every movement set.
My father was in military, and after the Yalta agreement he was sent to teach in military academy.
My first audience, probably I was pretty good at that, and then I heard this applause. My mother and my father were surprised and, of course, proud.
My mother commit suicide for unknown reason. I've seen pain.
My oldest daughter is with Jessica Lange.
No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.
Nureyev was just interested in classical material.
People had longer attention spans in the . The works have been abridged to make it easy, more accessible for the TV generation.
People of art should never get married and have children, because it's a selfish experience.
People wanted to create new work, not restage old material.
People who are in the corps de ballet have different perspective.
The biggest shock was that I could travel without even asking. I go to the embassy, they give me visa and I go.
The biggest transition would be to stop dancing. When it will happen, I don't know.
The goal was never related to monetary elements.
The Russian people get so insanely close to each other as friends. Their lives are interrelated so much on an everyday basis.
The show is not just for dance lovers. We will show the sociopolitical perspective.
The White Oak project started when I was at a crossroads of my career, sort of left American Ballet Theater.
There's a lot of downsides to the West. You accept as a part of your new world. I wouldn't regret one second.
These works have become classics. They have been approved by time. I want to introduce them to a new generation, to a new audience.
To achieve some depth in your field requires a lot of sacrifices. Want to or not, you're thinking about what you're doing in life-in my case, dancing.
To walk across the street is a risk.
Today I took class with the City Ballet at Lincoln Center, and I do miss those moments when I was dancing full out and jumped.
We need time to prepare a show without pressure.
We were uninvited guests there. I was born there; it was a geographic accident.
We're trying to stretch our muscles creatively. It gives us so much more freedom.
We've been lucky all these years. We've never been in the red.
When people who dance together like in ice skating, they dance together because they are in unison.
When we were little, the Cubans used to send boxes and boxes to Russia. Of course, they were all dry because they sent them over on slow boats.
When you are 17, 18, 19 and you have enough money to play, you are very eager to be the bachelor. But the first was my career.
White Nights was an experience of certain dignity.
Working is living to me.
You can be totally involved, you could admire just the shape of it or you could be totally emotionally mushed up into the dance.
You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.
You have to participate as an audience member. You have to ask, what do they want to say? What are their politics, their likes and dislikes?
In 1978, Misha was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Supporting Role for: The Turning Point (1977).
In 1979, Misha won the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement - Special Events for: Baryshnikov at the White House (1979).
In 1985, Misha was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts for the Great Performances: Dance in America (1976) episode Baryshnikov by Tharp with American Ballet Theatre.
In 1989, Misha won the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performance in Classical Music/Dance Programming for the Great Performances: Dance in America (1976 episode Baryshnikov Dances Balanchine.
One of Misha's latest projects is the Baryshnikov Arts Center, a new home for various art forms that opened in November (2005) on Manhattan's West Side. New York, NY.
Misha was accepted by the prestigious Kirov Ballet at the age of 15.
Mikhail Baryshnikov: 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.
Mikhail Baryshnikov: No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.
Mikhail Baryshnikov: I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself.
Mikhail Baryshnikov: I am not the first straight dancer, nor the last.
When Misha met Jessica Lange, he spoke little English. Fortunately for him, Lange spoke French, which he could speak fluently.
Misha was romantically involved with legendary ballerinas Natalya Makarova and Gelsey Kirkland.
Misha has three children with Lisa Rinehart ... Anna Katerina, Sofia Luisa and a son named Peter Andrew.
Misha is an avid golfer.
While starring with the Kirov Ballet, Misha defected to Canada in 1974, joining the American Ballet Theatre.
Misha and Jessica Lange had a daughter together in the 80's. Her name is Shura (Alexandra) Baryshnikov.
From 1978-1979, Misha danced with George Ballanchine's New York City Ballet.
Misha has had choreography composed for him by George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp.
Misha quit ballet in favor of modern dance after a knee injury. It was said that "He hung up his tights and never looked back."
Misha was the artisitic director of the American Ballet Theatre and even ran his own class outside of ABT --
Misha is still the most famous name in ballet.
Misha has his own clothing line of dancewear called "Baryhsnikov."
Over the course of his career, Misha danced with the Bolshoi Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, The National Ballet School of Canada and the New York City Ballet.
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