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Home
Authors
Mikhail Baryshnikov
American
Dancer
About the author
I am not the first straight dancer or the last.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#First
I kind of lost interest in the classical dance. I was very much interested in the modern choreography.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Dance
#Interest
No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Business
It's what's left in life, to work with interesting people.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Life
#People
#Work
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.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Now
#Dance
#Years
#Being
#Company
I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#People
#Mother
#Russia
#Party
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.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Want
#Life
#Thinking
#Dancing
I want to do exactly what I want to do. I'd rather gamble on the box office than beg for a grant.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Want
#Office
Working is living to me.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Living
I think art education, especially in this country, which government pretty much ignores, is so important for young people.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#People
#Art
#Country
#Pretty
#Government
#Education
I really reject that kind of comparison that says, Oh, he is the best. This is the second best. There is no such thing.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
People of art should never get married and have children, because it's a selfish experience.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#People
#Art
#Children
#Experience
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.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Friends
I have been very lucky to work in so many new ballets, but that is what a dancer's work is.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Work
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.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#People
#Career
I get speeding ticket like everybody else. If the restaurant is full I'm waiting in line like everybody else.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Waiting
I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
Every ballet, whether or not successful artistically or with the public, has given me something important.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Public
#Successful
#Ballet
Dancing is my obsession. My life.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Life
#Dancing
#Obsession
Dancers are stripped enough onstage. You don't have to know more about them than they've given you already.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Stupidity
#Artists
#Mediocrity
#Project
Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
To walk across the street is a risk.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Risk
You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Work
#Family
#Being
I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#Life
#People
The Russian people get so insanely close to each other as friends. Their lives are interrelated so much on an everyday basis.
Mikhail Baryshnikov,
American
Dancer
#People
#Friends