
Mikhail Baryshnikov’s new “anti-ballet” - akakievich
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/12/01/the-resurrection-of-joseph-brodsky/
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pdxandi
I started studying ballet at the age of three and continued through high
school. I eventually stopped to pursue other sports and academic interests,
but I grew up rather alone as a young boy with an immense appreciation for —
borderline obsession with — Mikhail Baryshnikov.

I vividly remember sharing in elementary school that Baryshnikov was my idol,
while others talked of Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson, but it was usually just
a source of ridicule, which I was used to. I'm in my thirties now and have
always felt saddened by not having the chance to watch him perform as he
retired about the age I started appreciating the greats in ballet. I
ultimately married a (now retired) ballet dancer and we share the love for the
art, though she more closely follows the female performers, understandably.

I have to share that I always felt a bit embittered when friends who watched
Sex and the City would talk about his character because they never knew who he
really was – one of the greatest male ballet dancers to walk this earth. I
will say, though, that I got a kick out of getting a chance to tell them. As
an adult, my former life as a dancer is far more appreciated, especially when
we'd go out to a club, and most certainly after I met my wife.

I'm really excited to hear about this performance and I want to thank you for
sharing. I will find a way to go, just to see him in the flesh.

~~~
gliese1337
One of my nephews started ballet (I think he was 6 at the time), but gave it
up after only about a year. I was a bit disappointed- male ballet dancers are
seriously impressive guys!- but he still likes dance, so that's something. I
always like finding things like this that help validate those interests, to
work against the negative stereotypes of male dancers that pervade most
American youth culture.

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tomcam
No clue why this showed up on HN but it's welcome. Most HN readers probably
know Baryshnikov, a titanically gifted dancer who defected from the then-
Soviet Union in the 1970s. Soviet ballet was matchless technically but
hidebound. He was a free thinker, so, yeah... that didn't work. He flourished
in the West. I think he's also an underrated actor, administrator (hey, that
means a lot in the art world) and choreographer. This dance is about his
friendship with Joseph Brodsky.

Brodsky was a poet with something of the same background, also a Soviet
defector. To my mind he is one of the greatest poets in English of the 20th
century; like Nabokov he was extraordinarily gifted in more than one language.
He in his mid 50s about 20 years ago. I imagine this is one of the more
interesting of Baryshnikov's works because they seemed like two birds of a
feather. I miss Brodsky terribly and I didn't even know him. Baryshnikov at 67
probably has some dance magic left in him for this performance.

~~~
kbutler
> No clue why this showed up on HN but it's welcome

And that's why it showed up...

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zck
Can someone point out a video of Baryshnikov's dance that is so impressive?
Perhaps it's a lack of training or interest in dance, but I just looked at a
few videos on Youtube, and none of them seem all that amazing, just consisting
of what seem like standard ballet moves.

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watersb
Very happy we got to see him perform a brief experimental work in 1998.
Movement that would be brushed off as a special effect if kids saw it today.
Seeing it live was astonishing.

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marincounty
Although your significant other might complain you don't like, nor get the
ballet; deep down inside they don't really care. And if given a choice--the're
glade you don't know all the ballet trivia, and wear a black turtleneck.

Source: last girlfriend. She had other gripes about my character, but my
ballet appreciation, or lack of, was not one of them.

~~~
tomcam
Thing about Baryshnikov was that he was so good, you didn't have to like
ballet to be floored by his performances.

Some people don't like museums. I think that's largely because they haven't
been to a great one, like the Met in New York or the Louvre. The second-raters
(like everything in Los Angeles, for example, and I say this as a proud former
Angeleno, actually are boring. Misha was like that in ballet.

I don't watch ballet anymore either, because I haven't seen anyone else like
him in his prime.

Source: Not a ballet fan before, or after, Baryshinikov at his best

