Cheryl North :: Interviews
Cheryl North Interviews Mikhail Baryshnikov ANG Newspapers Classical Music Column - March 17, 2006, under headline, More honors for the amazing Mikhail Baryshnikov FICTION can seldom outdo the surprises, ironies and plot twists of real life. Imagine this unlikely scenario: a member of the military of the former Soviet Union and his wife are stationed in Riga — the erstwhile capital city of freedom-loving Latvia, the cold, birch-forested country bordering the Baltic Sea. In 1948, this Russian-born couple have a son who will someday be awarded The National Medal of Honor of the United States of America. Fiction? No — fact. But that's only a part of the fantastic tale. This child, whom his parents named Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov, would also grow up to become a recipient of a coveted Kennedy Center Honor, a Commonwealth Award, a Chubb Fellowship and the Jerome Robbins Award. He would eventually become a naturalized citizen of the United States. Moreover, this Latvian-born and educated Russian would someday become a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and then, at age 32, progress to the post of artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre. He would father a daughter with two-time Academy Award-winning actress Jessica Lange and eventually settle in a home on the Hudson River with former American Ballet Theater dancer Lisa Rinehart and their three children. He would also be nominated for several Academy Awards for his own forays into acting. He has been lauded by critics as "the world's most perfect male dancer." And now, like frosting on the cake, this remarkable Riga-born Russian will be presented with the Marcus Prize for Lifetime Achievement by the San Francisco State University-sponsored International Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. In addition to the award ceremony, there will be a performance by one of Baryshnikov's favorite ensembles, the Kremerata Baltica. In his early 20s, Baryshnikov won celebrity status in the former Soviet Union with his brilliant dancing and musical skills. But while on tour with the famed Kirov Ballet in 1974, he defected to the West. He explained at the time that his reasons for defection had as much to do with aesthetics as political ideology. Besides being born with an uncommonly strong, muscular body, a keen sense of balance, and an innate musicality, he had a voracious desire to expand his horizons and to explore new dance, musical and artistic styles. Since defecting to America he has indeed made much of his new-found freedom by embracing a whole new hemisphere of styles. He has danced the classic ballets of Adam and Tchaikovsky, as well as Shostakovich and Glass. He has moved and grooved to the music of Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and jazz. He heads the White Oak Dance Project and the Baryshnikov Foundation, which encourages artists and musicians from a broad spectrum of disciplines. During a telephone interview earlier this week, I asked him why he has chosen the Kremerata Baltica, an ensemble made up of 27 twentysomething musicians from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as partner in the upcoming San Francisco event. "Ah — the group's founder, violinist Gidon Kremer, is an old friend of mine," replied Baryshnikov in rapid, energetic English marked with only the slightest foreign-sounding accent. "We both went to the same conservatory in Riga." Continuing at the same staccato pace, he said, "It was a remarkable school. Not only Kremer, one of the world's greatest violinists, but Mischa Meisky, one of the best cellists of our generation, and violinist Philip Hirschhorn went to the same school. We studied math, literature and all that (the basic education subjects) together, and then had separate classes and lessons in our various musical fields. Gidon was a year ahead of me, but we've remained friends all these years and he is now on the advisory board of my Baryshnikov Foundation." He went on to explain that he felt the Baltic countries have a great musical and artistic tradition to share with our modern world, noting such fresh, and now influential, composers as Arvo Part of Estonia, Peter Vasks of Latvia and others from Lithuania. "The Baltics have a special artistic point of view," he emphasized. "Historically they are strong musically. (Arvo) Part put Estonia on the map, while Riga has one of the world's best historic organs in its great cathedral, and the area has a world-renowned choral tradition."