National Dance Week: Mikhail Baryshnikov

Oh Mikhail Baryshnikov, how I adore thee! I have a bit of a confession to make. I love learning about different people who defected from communistic countries to live in America. (Or in his case, initially Canada.) I was first introduced to Mikhail Baryshnikov by my mother when I was about six or seven. I'd never seen a male dancer that I thought was any good and he completely blew my mind out of the water. Leave it to the Russians to create something so amazing with their government!

Mikhail Baryshnikov began his dance training at the age of 9 in Riga where he was born. Four years later he entered the Vaganova school, in what is now, St Petersburg. (It used to be Lenigrad.) He won top prize in the junior division of the International Varna Competition and joined the Kirov Ballet and Mariinsky Theater in 1967, dancing the Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle.

While on tour in Canada with the Bolshoi Ballet in 1974, he defected and later would join the American Ballet Theater as a principal and danced with Gelsey Kirkland during his time there. He also danced with the New York City Ballet and worked exclusively with George Balanchine.

Mikhail Baryshnikov is the founder of The Baryshnikov Arts Center and can be found teaching whenever possible and staying in the best dancer's shape he can.