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Baryshnikov at Work: Mikhail Baryshnikov Discusses His Roles

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One of the great dancers of the twentieth century, and perhaps of all time, Mikhail Baryshnikov's work is captured briefly but magnificently in this volume. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to see Baryshnikov in a live performance, but only on videos and DVDs. Even in this limited format however, Baryshnikov is brilliant, and a major reason for his superb technique is his attitude. Another dancer could perhaps execute his movements, but Baryshnikov comes across like someone who knows why he is dancing, and not just following the choreography. He creates the impression that he is feeling every movement, and he is celebrating himself to the fullest extent through every execution of such movement.

How fortunate we are that Baryshnikov agreed to tell us his opinions on the works covered in the book. That gives a special insight into his attitudes and general philosophy of dance. Baryshnikov gave credit to his teacher, the great Alexander Pushkin, for teaching him that on stage one must be free, and not just carrying through the techniques learned in class. "Classical technique", he says, "is like any language: it can be correctly spoken in many voices." And it is refreshing to read that Baryshnikov believed that dancing ability is the result of discipline and hard work, that a dancer is (self) made, not born.

Baryshnikov gives detailed remarks on the works Giselle, La Bayadere, Don Quixote, Coppelia, Theme and Variations, Les Patineurs, La Fille Mal Gardee, La Sylphide, Le Corsaire, Vestris, Medea, Shadowplay, Spectre de la Rose, Le Pavillon d'Armide, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Awakening, Hamlet Connotations, Push Comes To Shove, Other Dances, Pas de Duke, Sleeping Beauty, Petrouchka, Le Sacre du Printemps, Once More Frank, and my all time favorite Le Jeune Homme Et La Mort. The photography is all black and white, and superbly done.

One can breathe a sigh of relief that the Soviet government did not choose to eliminate ballet as being too "bourgeois" when it took over in 1917. Baryshnikov and other Russian ballet greats would not have came about if this had been the case. And in addition, the Soviets would have taken away the absolute prerequisite for all healthy civilizations: the dance.

A wonderful book that sadly is out of print. Ballet, like professional sports demands youth, strength, agility, and Baryshnikov was the superstar in his time. This book is loaded with photos that capture the beauty, grace, and skill of a man who admired Fred Astaire. And like Astaire, spent countless hours practicing and perfecting their art. Who can forget probably the best ever rendition of the "Nutcracker" with Gelsey Kirkland, and the scenes are wonderfully captured here. I've never lent this book out to anyone cause I knew I'd never get it back. This is a treasure if you can find it.

In Baryisnikov's own words, he gives the reader an excellent idea, from a dancer's point of view, of what is involved in dancing his most popular productions. Very interesting to read.

The photo book, "Baryshnikov at Work", is not the ultimate in the craft of published photographic documentation, the photos as reproduced here lacking some degree just a little too much in focus and sharpness of detail. However, many of these photographs did become quite famous in other collections, as somewhat better reproduced, over the years, printed in better quality and detail therein. The photos are are stunningly evocative in pose, gest, posture, and expressivity. The images as gathered here, however, serve a purpose, together, that they do not quite serve, separately, in other photo-documentaries of Baryshnikov. They really do illustrate how eloquently yet also so gracefully and athletically, always conveying such amazing ease, Baryshnikov danced.

The texts in the book are especially valuable. Baryshnikov already had developed his repertory of dance roles to a remarkably broad and already stable extent even at so early a stage of his lengthy career (in terms of dancing; of course, he has continued his work in dance as a choreograher, teacher, mentor, and so forth altogether even longer). In his own words, Baryshnikov describes many aspects of the roles and his attitudes towards, and feelings about, them and the choreographic and musical works of which these roles are a part. These comments, too, are not at all vague or superfluous; they really convey a lot of valuable information, despite their brevity, which helps one to understand Baryshninov's art that much better. Seeing the videos (VHS tapes and DVDs) at home or elsewhere that document his work, many of which one can purchase from Amazon, after having read these texts and having studied closely the stills of him dancing these ballets and works of modern dance, adds greatly to one's appreciation of his work.

Expressing matters more personally, I am an ardent fan of Rudolf Nureyev, Yuri Soloviev, Carlos Acosta, and of Roberto Bolle, my other favourite male dancers of the post-W.W. II era, but, in the end, I would have to admit that Mikhail Baryshnikov, such a finished and utterly perfect yet also very expressive and endearing dancer, is the greatest of all of these male dancers; that he also was a lad of such undeniably considerable physical beauty, of course, added all the more to his allure. Mikhail Baryshnikov truly deserves the homage of books so fine as "Baryshnikov at Work" most surely is!