Mikhail Baryshnikov

Did you know?!

1. Big break

   Baryshnikov gave up freelancing in 1978 to join the New York City Ballet as a principal for 18 months. George Balanchine, who ran the company, seldom took guest artists and had refused Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova, so the move stunned the dance world.

2. 

   First role

   Baryshnikov's first film role came soon after he arrived in New York, playing the womanizing Russian ballet dancer Yuri Kopeikine in the 1977 film The Turning Point, a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination.

3. Early training

   Baryshnikov started ballet training in Riga in 1960, when he was 12. In 1964 he joined the Vaganova School in Leningrad, and before long he took first prize in the junior section at the Varna International Ballet Competition.

4. Big break

   Baryshnikov made his Broadway breakthrough in 1989 playing Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis, an adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel, a performance that earned him a Tony nomination.

5. Behind the camera

   Baryshnikov served as artistic director of the White Oak Dance Project from 1990 to 2002. He started the touring company with Mark Morris, and it was created to make original work for older dancers.

6. A first

   Baryshnikov's 1977 CBS production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, in which he danced the title role, is one of only two versions of the ballet ever nominated for an Emmy Award.