Mikhail Baryshnikov in Conversation with Ian Brown

people who introduce artists on stage often say their guests need no introduction in the case of Mikhail Baryshnikov this is actually true but an introduction is a nice thing and I have one born in 1948 two Russian parents in Riga Latvia where he began studying ballet as a boy he is today the most celebrated classical ballet dancer of our time a name that sits in history beside Nureyev and Nijinsky he made his debut as a principal dancer with the Kirov in 1969 his flawless technique and expressiveness Clive Barnes of the New York Times called him the most perfect dancer he had ever seen were already legendary when on June 29th 1974 at the age of 26 after a performance at the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto he defected from the Soviet Union his defection electrified and not just the rarefied ballet community but the entire world beyond it in 1980 he began a controversial decade-long tenure as artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre changing the way people thought about dance a decade after that he managed the unpredictable again and founded the white oak dance project which did for the popularity of modern dance what he'd already done for ballet I in 2005 he opened the Baryshnikov Art Center creative home for performers and artists which is essentially the Banff Centre but smaller sorry and in Manhattan with no mountains his his acting in movies has earned him an Academy Award nomination for the turning point and a Tony for his work in Kafka's the metamorphosis not to mention even greater Fame with a new generation who know him as Alexander Petrovsky Carrie Bradshaw's older Russian boyfriend on Sex and the City the guy who does not get the girl this appears to be the only time and mr. Baryshnikov's life that this has happened his television dance specials have won two Emmys he appears as an actor on stage to this day he's a published photographer a much published writer and a children's book author a businessman a restaurateur a father of four through it all he continues to practice to teach and always to dance and I think most of all it's his example the his intellectual restlessness and daring and his lifelong dedication to making art and making it new that have inspired dancers and human beings alike he is a recipient of the National Medal of Honor among many other awards and in 2010 he was given the rank of officer of the French Legion of Honor ladies and gentlemen there is not only no one like him there is no one even close but would you please give your most rousing Mountain welcome to Mikhail Baryshnikov Thanks thank you thank you thank you so welcome to been well thank you thank you nice to be here again and I've been thinking today just next year with the 40th anniversary since first time came to Canada mm 40 years ago that is one of the things I want to talk to you about but I'd like to start with a question that I I have heard you don't like talking about mmm as they all actually I've heard that as well in that category the the fame as I was reading about you I began to realize that the fame of the great male ballet dancers is different from the fame surrounding even say Tiger Woods or Meryl Streep or say Jerry Seinfeld or other artists that there are other people who are almost like them or close to it who do something similar but there is only one great male dancer at a time and there is only one Baryshnikov so my question is when did you first realize how how great this legend might be or how great it it hugely it loomed around you and did you like it when you discovered it seriously I never ever in any age of my career you know I've been thinking seriously about those things because I knew kind of a instinctively it will be only onion on your way and it's it's not the most healthiest attitude plus people who knows me you know I'm really a I think in arts there is no competition not everybody or if you're a musician or a singer painter everybody is trying to find their only ways to express herself himself in your medium cuz it's a you know we are in a business of communication and we have a different temper of ways different body movement different signature different voices and to compare and to say who is better who is worse I mean who is the second with third I think it's just totally counterproductive what people saying you know the it's I I don't I don't get it so what does the world of ballet builds up that legend too for whatever purpose well that's why it's called legend you know I mean and it's just irrelevant in my view so you're saying that there is no there is no first best there's no second best if that seems a very difficult attitude for certainly North American society to grasp maybe the arts are the place where we find that tolerance you know did I recently you know my right and left hand was twisted twice and I I did address commits was commencement speech at Northwestern University which actually my one of my daughters who will graduate next year they're insist that I will do this I roped you in right yeah and and there was a moment actually we discussed this family around the table in orbit very important and and she suggests that moment you know that indeed in in art especially and everywhere you you don't strive to be the best you want to be better every day in your craft then you will advance but when you really are having goal in front of you be best and be bad best and best and best very few people get there really far enough you know can you take me back to to Riga you enrolled in your first dance school on your own yes how old were you when you did that I was probably nine years old or so and your father worked on my parents that I will I will go for the audition for examination and I don't want them to hold my hand you know I knew where it was know that we signed the documents necessarily I pass medical examination and and accept it but and your father did not like that well he's you know I was nine years old and my mother smiled and you know I was very proud and said well let him try for a couple of years we'll see your mother said that you know my father Oh your father you know yeah my mother sort of didn't give up on me kiss me and and then that's it did you get along well with your father not really yeah not really prefer different reasons not that he was a military man and in teaching in Academy and Military Academy and he had a different life he was a member of Communist Party not a religious man and my mother was very simple and very from the peasant background but intuitively really very gifted person she had Meyer arts all kind of arts and she introduced me to a lot of things so a few years later you move to Leningrad where taught by the great Pushkin was he a demanding teacher no he was very soft-spoken his never raised his voice during the day class exercises but he had this extraordinary perceptive you know method of very quiet and you know people admired his softness and he delicacy and with the approach to visit his students and he was adored by everybody you were famous for your your jumps I gather Pushkin jump pushed it higher mm-hmm I don't know what I was famous for I mean this is a gemstones or this I a he's all his students and then of course the people whom because he he taught in the school and also in the company at the Kirov ballet a class of the principal dancers and that was every everyday hard work for everyone you know and I've just got lucky to get into his hands and onto his class yeah as always with a great teacher it's a it's luck or some kind of fate that you end up then that's that's happy so in 1969 you make your debut what was life like for a exceptionally promising dancer in Russia in those days and you said you had everything but oh and it's sort of freedom if you want to to attack a kind of roles which you really dream to dance although in classical value have very few you know musicians and singers have much better and bigger rapper toward in classical dancers you know because great choreographers you know left us very very little in a few classical you know traditionally traditionally famous you know ballets with by Tchaikovsky and Pettibon and few others Gorsky Fokine in ski but in general generally legacy of and the future of classical ballet it's kind of questionable because it's always kind of lipid drugs behind and behind and slower than any any other aspects of you know arts which is that's what cold you know the the classical ballet is a tradition it is like you know a a bitter cake and I knew kind of always that I want to be involved with the new work and that was not encouraged you felt stultified you know at that time and was a you know and late 60s early 70s I danced all you know a few years old romantic and and sort of classical parts you know and Giselle and donki hote and Sleeping Beauty friends you know and all this rose you know but my my dreamers was always to work with the choreographers new of new word new new step so when you came to New York you had a lot of personal freedom it I mean you start to work like a lunatic with all kinds of different choreographers you do 22 roles and in 18 months to Twyla Tharp complains at one point that she gets only fifty out to work rehearse with you whereas normally she would get 500 hours that seems like a lot of rehearsal time to me 500 hours for a dance well I mean it it was very exciting time for me you know as was invited to work in Europe or here and in Australia or South America Paris London bah bah bah you know it was a it was the most difficult times that it was a bit of moments for me will really make personal decision you know what not do it and accept and I made few mistakes but I kind of learned you know I was will always want to do the bit with the best and and it was very into it intuitive you know because I really knew very little about North America particularly New York ways to perform waste to the theatre ethics how to behave what language to speak you know it was a lot of a lot of kind of serious moments and luckily I I met a lot of interesting and very kind and nice people who really helped me a lot mm-hmm including an entire firmament of great choreographies everybody from Balanchine to Thornton yes but you know you you start or whatever you work with you know John Butler or Glen Tetley or Twyla Tharp and later on you know Paul Taylor Martha Graham Robbins balancing you know it's every person it's a different story you don't go to the choreographer say please can you do tease for me I want to dance your it you know you that's what I would do you would that's what I heard about you you kind of hang out you go to see their work you know and you know and there and of course you you sometimes go and but let's say in my already 40s or 50s I could approached their young choreographers say come on kid let's do something you know let's go and and the studio if you interested you know and you know but you know go to Salford derkastan you know and do things you know you kind of wait patiently for invitation and luckily in a way I got quite a few you know and even in and but still on the table were a lot of choices which nothing actually changed right now I do maybe so now it's more you know to work in the theatre more the dance when I still do a few little you know performances like recently did little season with Mark Morris new piece and I will dance in September one of his old solos you know for one of our benefits for my Center but now it's more choices about theater working and performing and ready know kind of when you decide you go to the make a break and you start to do all kinds of new things you do Baryshnikov on Broadway you do Baryshnikov in Hollywood you make movies the TV stuff went some Emmys are you ever nervous that every day I wake up nervous no but about what people are going to think ye yes and no I look why I do have quite a bit of a thin skin about certain certain things but at the same time exercise as though what woody thin skin such as you know failure we are afraid of failure but excitement to to give yourself a chance to stretch yourself and to open certain frontiers for your mind and body and for your audience too because let's face it we all be doing this you know you don't sit and at night and talk to yourself in the mirror at the home you know I do but a bet you know you don't have to you're smart you're charming you're brilliant you well known you know but you sometimes taking projects which is kind of not just what we are doing something you write and you know and that's where y'all artists are stretching that's why the but this Center is designed for young artists to come and work and find new language and find themselves in a new situation why I mean I was so impressed the last two days visiting the facilities and it's you know I'm afraid I have to ask second time for political asylum culture twice twice in 40 years yes it's hardly culture asylum it's harder it's harder to get it to get cultural asylum in Alberta though no but it's it's fabulous that you know that it's wonderful sponsors and you know sponsors who are actually for all people you know that's because investment in arts it's the most important investment in the future in the future in the future it's their future was it hard to learn to dance like Fred Astaire nobody can ever learn and dance like Fred Astaire it's impossible because hey he opened something in himself and he was such a perfectionist and immense talent and workaholic and you know all the things together but nobody ever would ever would get close to him that's my opinion you know with all these transformations the public Fame and or beginning with the defection I guess you come to dance in America you do all these different things you you cross over not just a different genres to modern dance but come out of dance into acting this huge portion to the new I'm afraid to get bored you know that's all it is because it almost feels like a liberal it did assitant it it's a kind of cliche but it did there's certain truth in this remark you know I I I'm nervous performer you know I I like the process what you do now in in those workshops much more than actually performing and I'm getting not bored by getting restless I I won't do something else after a few weeks a few months or of performing a dance or a play I want to go back I won't go into the studio because I feel that I start to sort of getting it my car gets into the swamp little deeper and deeper and deeper and and you know although you can always the longer you perform that you have a more chances to improve and yet there is a clock is ticking you know and you know that there is somewhere you have to step out from the stage for good for good yes of course and when you fail produce adequate interesting work you or your best friend or your wife or your the public will say gay know enough and then then you and then I wanna I I wanted on the new project and they I would like to give myself opportunity to wake up and get excited to drive to my studio or on some rehearsal and start new work I'd like a new movie maybe will you be in another movie I've been offering many movies which I passed on because it was all stupid you know to play flop eight to play some Russian gangster or or frustrated choreographer what about Jane in my age let's face it and James Bond ah can you do a little addition the bond James Bond not with my accent yeah I can play bad guy in range and that guy might work right I think you've been playing it a little tonight actually but um you you met you were married to Jessica Lange they were not married the beauteous partnered yes click ahead actually we married with my wife Lisa for a few years but I generally you know I am agnostic about marriage but although we are married you know and we are perfectly happy we were perfectly ready before the marriage as we're happy now married they made no difference no difference for me but you break up but you have a her mother appreciated yeah I can understand that and you have a child the first of your of your four children yes um and everybody says this when you have said that it changed you that it put something into your drive as an artist your into your drive in your career that of course children change your life and we are talking today with Lisa and during the launch about you know me being sometimes absent father and to my children and and never element of truth of course and no but what me or together with my wife always have there sometimes disputes around the dinner table and no and voice is flying up and this and that but we kind of I always at least I always thought that you cannot educate children around the table there they could you know education of your child it's not the best performance of your career it is it's very slow process and they you know you just they just observe you observe your behavior to others how you live and what what kind of choices you make and if you now they already you know and adults you know when I have a two grandchildren two girls you know a ten and ten from my Alexandra Shora and my oldest and you know when you record recognize something really some some goodness in your child something really lovely and it is the best it's the best gift in the world you know just experience that it's you kind of even in little way involved in their lives I sometimes find it's a little bit they're a bit like that critics of a performance because you know a very long performance of twenty years but they remember the two minutes in which you weren't very good giving the making just two minutes something like that's a point doctor think about it did you um did you enjoy the Carrie Bradshaw Sex in the City yeah by the way speaking of Sex and the City note I have to really make this really clear that actually this is not the reality show you know that this is actually TV sitcom and it it's it's if you don't ask me for example how the how many children that mr. big and Carrie has now Allah cuz I don't know it's happened to me a few times I swear to god death help did I answer right done that was my next question actually it was fabulous experience that's it so it was fabulous experience yeah it had note I mean to be to you know that year that's last season and I had a great time I thought it would be just a couple of episodes and on that and the role kind of stretched and tilled area and and I but I learned a lot about television about this very hard-working people you know when you see and he said Collier there come and they do it like so but they work you know day and night it's so difficult for 10 12 hours a day in changing attacks there's the writers you know line there is a every every episode is a new director and you set you know it's a it's it was rough but I enjoyed the experience I know you don't care very much about money but who said you say the being an artist I thought you will be do you think I'm doing now also this money wouldn't go to my pockets it will be Avera for one of our productions and BAC you know but I'm not being a dancer myself as you can tell I I wondered how does the money for going on Sex in the City compare with being a principal dancer at say the New York City Ballet a bit better money I've been better than that no no it was very comfortable I want to ask unfortunately have to pay taxes you have to pay when you're on TV you want to pay taxes or always always yeah that's I'm glad to hear that lace and you know when in the 1990s you you shocked the world you move into modern dance you you you create white oak the dance project you once said that you thought modern dance is more democratic than classical ballet that is closer to the heart of the people what did you mean by that well it's more American like as well like when you dance barefoot let's say barefoot you know it's much more democratic to start with not to know they wear ballet slippers or you know character shoes no I'm this joke felt flatties felt really flat I thought was so it's that dry Russian humor of yours yeah and it will look at tonight's performance all this fabulous azeris dancers you know and we chat a little bit backstage and I thought what was the most pleasing besides this extraordinary looking group you know and and extraordinary technically equipped people they were performing with a great humility and without selling at their performance held at their bodies revealed them individually as human beings and the most extraordinary gift choreographer can give to his or her dancers and that's what I from very beginning you know when I looked at the dancers of Merce Cunningham or dancers of Mark Morris or a beginning of the first first dances of Twyla Tharp's company I mean they were those people who can also be extraordinary dance equipped you know and then can voluntarily reveal their very dark secrets about themselves you know in complexity and at the same time they appreciate that privileged being onstage in front of the audience because it's unmeasurable hi hmm it's interesting that you say without without commercial pressure when you started the Baryshnikov Art Centre a couple of years ago you did that to free artists from commercial almost 10 years ago is that yes 2004 obviously commercial pressure is something you think is sometimes not so great for making art well like commercial pressure I was afraid I wouldn't be able to raise enough money for a for for a house of my dreams you know I was I was afraid to drop and the ball right in the midst of it you know because that remember you know the very serious economic depression kind of repression happened to know everything kind of stopped in the United States and you know and and also you know the government didn't quite you know we have the system of non support of the Arts completely opposite in in country with a socially socialist backgrounds you know and I don't know what you're talking about no I don't I don't either well let's say constitutional monarchy or parliamentary system I don't know how monarchy she just had the baby it's it's a very hot day baby's cute there were so articles about baby baby cribs no dress like that it was really not the Rolls Royce of it and not that it's like middle road somewhere made in Sweden you know reliable the King care especially into the articles big articles papers about babies really this is what journalism is for it was a slow day in journalism yeah and I I read somewhere that you hardly ever go to classical ballet any ballet I rarely now you know because when kids used to grow up took them to see Nutcracker and all Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake you know something but you know as I said the clock is ticking and I want to see something the people who are pushing envelope and I do go to see people's work like Alexei Ratmansky I'm going to see be working with the ballet theaters the does great stuff and they know when he's working also Christopher Wilden or Mark Morris or you know people who are really but but to go to see another four hours of classical production for me it's kind of just this this time would never come back and not not no disrespect you know there's some interesting classical productions and wonderful dancers I've just been there for so long I just you know sorry about that but you you're I gather a big fan of Mad Men the show madney yes I am yeah what's your favorite character all of them I'm in the loudness people I I think I won in different times and I wish I could be in United States during you know the second season of 50s in advertising yes and why not please do not ask any questions about how he's doing an advert did you see the 50s produced 60s which was the most fabulous time in the United States probably you know all this and how 60s affected like a group of Judson group you know this all these fabulous innovators you know how and they're affected you know and then judge on occasion a nurse Cunningham and you know George Balanchine and Robbins and the Broadway and the theater I mean we are in right now in a bit of a bit of a slope you know in arts in my view and why so well because it's a you know in the last 10 15 years we lost a vanguard of eldery or a vanguard of you know start from Antony Tudor and Sir Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacNeil and George Balanchine Jerome Robbins you know recently Merce Cunningham I mean the people who really at least opened my eyes on the on on dance you know lost not just them there was quite and in after them it was just kind of a gap you know and especially with the with the departure of John Cage and Merce Cunningham you know for people over avantgarde that would they were really like towering up in the ocean you know and we all adore admire and learn from them as much as we could you know although I'm not a choreographer do you feel it when I when John Updike died I practically had to lie down for four days you know I was such a inspiration and such a great brand after them you know especially in classical dance there was a lot of you know modern dance choreographers who's just started and you know and and a lot of people there their admirers are but it's kind of slow and there is a new departure Alexei Ratmansky let's say in a classical dance and you know a Christopher well done and then see others and you know I not just I am choosing them they're indeed you know like in any art form were in Hollywood or or in music or there's a handful of people who really moved you know move the envelope and yeah who you who you want to keep in your circle to drive you yet yeah let's can we I don't want this to sound the wrong way can we talk about your body my body yes what he won't talk about what part of my body won't turn nice has all over that tells you not all of them what hurts as you sit there um first here I need a lot Bottomly probably after this interview I said so many stupid thing with me I will buy you one it would cost him day and how many operations and a few 10 or something 10 dollah money yeah nice bond use this and that shoulder listen you know ankle and nobody I did luckily had a really extraordinary group of doctors but taking care of me and I I survived you know yeah are there things that you wish you could still do that you you can no longer you know I always I was I decided to in very early age that I will do classical work until 35 37 or so and I did that I stopped dancing rep Casca report on that and no but luckily it was a unnoticeable because I I moved to two other had other work you know and and in my tender age of 65 and still dancing not not very often and in the street shoes but still dancing do do you still practice every day yes how long um it depends you know there's some days right now when I was working you know what Bob also there's a lot of movement I did warm-up seriously and I even because my partner in crime was willem dafoe and he's a extraordinary yogi he does a practice every day of a couple of hours and I was just like stretching with him sometimes and but I do my bar my I work with sort of rubber balls you know just to do certain stretches and try to keep my body I mean in in line so to speak uh-huh and and and every day not today and not yesterday okay yeah but I I would imagine I asked Barry Oliphant this once when she was I loved her yeah a fantastic she was fantastic really fantastic I asked her she said that getting older for a dancer and not not just getting older really but becoming less physically capable is the hardest thing that and she said to you you have to resolve it and you have to face it but it is the hardest thing to result because you know as you stepped up on the stage I notice how graceful you are you know even at the advanced age of 65 she didn't say that that's the mostly for admin for the man sir the Betty says I mean immortality in general of course there's you know I I think of it all the time I mean all the time yeah pretty much every day you know I'm saying I'm alive this means that speaking me at mortality and you know but one day I wake up and I'm not there then what to do yes it's like wooden that's the it's very woody allen yes yeah it's very woody iron yeah I'm sorry I didn't Airy very woody allen I feel Woody Allen said I'm not afraid of death I just want to be there when it happens which which I guess is a guaranteed really no I mean I love to perform and I'll perform as as long as I in my view do something meaningful on stage you know whatever it is you know walking saying something moving something moving moving myself talking to myself like gotta stop then it's the people start to notice that's what did which I was doing in a room you don't do it on the street do I do it on the street are you do yeah so I could carried away sometimes my wife was you know little late and she was talking to herself today I notice and she said she confirmed that she did actually then that's good I I want to ask you just one or two more things when you say you think about mortality every every day do you this is just a theory and I'm an amateur ballet goer a dance score I love to go I go with my daughter who who dances more danced for 15 years because her mother danced for 15 years because she was 10 years old and she went to New York City and she saw you dance so but when I go with her it's a fantastic evening and I always pretty much always and I'm not a crier even though I'm a journalist I mean I barely have a soul you do really it's very small but welcome to the boat but when I go to the dance I I always cry and the last time it happened it was Jerome Robbins glass pieces that beautiful dance were it's virtually walking across in unison and then they have a little puddle they come back and then again about being conformist but not wanting to be about the city and I see this dance and I think you know I can't I'm crying as I'm and it's not a particularly sad dance but I'm crying and I've been trying to figure out why I cry at that dance and I think for a while I thought it might be because it's about hope because Robbins went out and he thought I am going to make a picture to show people how we live and he was already when he was doing this piece and you know in certain age you know and you I knew Jerry quite well and mr. Robbins and the further he went in on and his career the the most intense he got during the rehearsals and and then he was very demanding choreographer and sometimes very ruthless even but that's the but he produces he but until very and produced wonderful work do you think there's something to that that the dance is moving because somehow it gives you hope or do you think it's about something more physical what why do why does it move us or why do we keep keep coming back to watch it is as strange and do it because it's such a you know any body movement and again a drop a cliche or Martha Graham that body cannot lie she a lot she used to love to say but he cannot lie you cannot be somebody else on stage no matter how good of an actor dancer singer you are when you open your house you move your finger audience knows who you are you know and it is such a when the dancers move or together or individually in the beautiful piece covered choreography and with the gorgeous light and very arresting and walking kind of music and revealing themselves i it is such a privilege to be in an audience and at that point i would like to be audience and i don't want to be on stage because it is privileged to be audience to witness this and then you can cry then if you want to just say it like that some people cry some people don't you know sometimes I do too you know like when I see myself at age eight you know dancing or just like a dancer who is this child she was our vile it one last thing that you said last thing already ten times before I said it no I'm I'm having good time don't keep going if you don't mind someone said to me the there could never have been anyone else like you on the dance scene because you were a unique talent at a unique point in history that you became in a way because of an infection because of changes in the culture because of changes in dance you became a common point around which people could rally I was watching some young dancers who were here at the center and I noticed that they were looking at their favorite dancers on YouTube you know and they were going fantastic look at that look at that look at that it made me wonder whether you know because the culture has fractured a lot because of electronics it's rare or I think that people get together for the collective experience of watching people move of watching human beings reveal themselves you know as they move so we kind of lose the opportunity to you know people in this audience will say all right you know I bet they will say I saw Baryshnikov when he came to Banff I was there there is something about being there do you think we're losing something of that and do you think it's important or do you think we'll make it up in other ways that collective experience well I mean the education and let's say you know classical education in 2030s even 40s when parents took children to hear opera or to to see to to to philharmonic hall or a dance performance or and you know let's face it we live in the reality of internet and we educating our leap in general royal be a gating ourself online and then the information comes to from from from one side it is really very progressive and it's quick and it's very convenient and everything but in my view you know a lot of young dancers losing their contact with their teachers human contact is much more important and and if the only advice I can give to young dancers to try to really trust their teachers more and and stay with them longer and try to understand why they're teaching this way another way you know and not to just run around and try to get something maybe because we grew up in different times and you know that connecting with somebody much older and much more on the knowledgeable it was a privilege for us somehow it socio-politically now young people get on their feet much earlier in life they live home earlier they're you know they're getting to the start to make windows to get into the company at age 16 17 and spending their 15 20 years dancing hard you know and sometimes they you know losing the perspective why they're doing this they just know from within themselves that they feel this need but then a lot of tragedies happened when did you know those dreams are start to crumble you know and you know have a life besides dance it's very important to see people work of others and not necessarily in dance different kind of dance go to see people in you know works in the galleries and go to the music concert to to read a book you know and to and you know bunhead it's bunhead you know but there's a there's something should be something that bomb you know and it's very important for for all artists and all the answers if there's a notice there's a lot of dancers you know meet people meet people not necessary not in arts people who your audience talk to them freely don't be aggressive and ask them what they mostly didn't like your performance that's more interesting conversation than listening that the good reviews you know it's not this sounds like what is 65 year old Baryshnikov would say to the 26 year old Bresnik oh well I 20:26 I arrived yeah okay under yes what to say to myself I don't know what I say to myself III actually my wife asked me today what if you have a just a wish what you'll do for next 10 years um I I was stunned because I I realize I don't have an answer and it would depends but today I don't have an answer and I will wake up tomorrow and maybe there is a I know a few projects I want to do you know and then related to theater and and I have to perform next year to place simultaneously kind of leapfrogging and it will be very hard here because in the theater somehow theater and stage in your mind all the time in dance you've arrived home you exhausted but you it's kind of you can flash it yourself out you know a massage good night's sleep get drunk and you know I mean just like that sounds good let's go yeah I bet the theater stays with you and and it's exhaust tube yeah yeah oh okay you should come to bed you should hook up with the babson I will I'll be back you could figure out the next 10 years here absolutely thank you that concludes the formal part of the interview but we have questions from the audience and the red paddle yes 15 years ago I watched you dance on your 50th birthday anniversary tour and you did something that I think is physically impossible and can you explain how you danced to your heart beat heart beat had made it slow down at the end while you were dancing faster well this was a piece by same improvisational piece which was developed Sara Radner choreographer and a dancer and she suggests that I would I could try and she was really fascinating and it was experimental piece which sort of electrodes attached to some muscles of the heart and and whatever you do in a contraction of the muscles actually goes to the speakers and goes to the audience it is like doctors listening your heartbeat and but it's and of course the I used to be so nervous to come onstage that my heartbeat was like 150 160 and then I could I could manage to to make sort of 270 75 by a very formal it's very actually easy exercise it's a breathing and bending when do you know the a skull and your head is below your waist of course the then then body is a protecting self you don't have to pump you know the blood to your brain and it's automatically slows down your the pulse but you know you know thank you I'm glad you enjoy the dance it was very interesting challenge and I love that dance the red red pattern right there I just like to say thank you so much for coming to bath and I hope you get back here sooner than later I wanted to ask you what it was like dancing with Gregory Hines because in movie White Nights you're contrasting styles were so dynamic so I just wanted to ask you how that was well Gregory was really a very close friend we got very sort of tight together during the shooting you know and you know of course I knew I knew him and his brother and you know watching him on stage and on and on television and films you know I and it was fascinating of course experience you know being away from home it was long shoots in England somewhere and on and he was just such a brave soul and very funny guy very as you told me once this he said said tell me about your childhood I said we didn't had any childhood you know they were either I said you know what I really remember when I was because the family was performing you know the father and it's just the whole family were onstage and he my aunt Wendy she was pushing me onstage like you know I said Gregory go and get that man and that was all Gregory you know he loved young people you know well he loved people who were following him you know seven Glover it was his I remember salient that that all he was just he he loved life more than anything he was a he consumed life you know he was such a gentle with a man with a giant heart and extraordinary talented thank you very much for you thank you uh you've transitioned from being a dancer to being a director and I'm wondering if you can speak to the challenges of leadership while you're still performing in an art a director I mean what I'm doing now or what I've done as director a couple of times run by under convey later for ten years and what I'm doing now it's I'm I'm artistic director of our Arts Center in New York and that's my nine-to-five job actually it's 9:00 to 11:00 it's 24/7 in fact that's the probably the most interesting and important project I've done in my life you know something which I never thought I will do in that volume and that depth and if something really changed my life that that project I am NOT a director with a you know with a stick although I can't be short-tempered as you notice a about a you know to work with the emerging artists artists of all generations and and if you have a opportunity to help them to succeed and and and stretch their vision and I'd love to be repeating long time myself flying the wall to see I'm a bit of a failure you know what I mean in this sense because I'm not choreographer myself and I don't teach young people per se you know to dance or you know if they're not asking me with some direct advice I'm trying to stray away from it because most of the time I don't know myself what I'm doing you know I mean it's tubes with other ways the blind you know the leads blind you know and I don't want to offend any blind people if they're here and uh but that's kind of cliche and the English language is not my mother tongue but being a director and trying to I'm trying my best to do something in New York and United States and play with an international group that New York would be more friendly for artists when I arrived in 70s it was a different system it was really so much fun so much found on the streets and cafes and and you know and then in the lofts it was really carefree kind of wonderful existence be people you know it was more dangerous on the streets but so much fun they had and then more and more with the pressure of the commercial real estate of course and some of the conservative governments and you know the kind sort of a glib certain moments I kind of stray away from New York for a while because every when you know at some point politically you know we were thinking seriously moved to Europe with my wife but the children this and that and I might we decide to stay and thank God we stayed and I start this project with the center and here we are it will being next door so ten years and I am very proud of our group whenever really extraordinary people working with us and a director director but doesn't mean I mean director yes at the back yes recently the Russian parliament passed a law very harsh law like prohibiting homosexual propaganda and I'm very interested to hear you're dead just stupid people and just laughing and sorry I'm sorry mr. president mr. president putin it's the wrong ways to educate people well next I think we have time for one last question on the right thank you I was wondering if you could um think about what you've learned from dance that you think the rest of the world should know to help us make the place this world a better place um you know I will answer you a one way you know you learn every day something new that's new info I just performed this a play directed by Bob Wilson with Willem Dafoe and there's a there is a one moment in a play which we sit and we repeat the same phrase with William back and forth and and that phrase probably shook me and you know deeply and moved me deeply and it's it's it goes like that this is how hunger begins the morning awake feeling lively then begins the weakness then begins the boredom then comes the loss of the power of quick reason then comes the calmness and then begins the horror that's it and and it's written in 1922 I think you know by danil harms this author of our play and you know well think about it ladies and gentlemen mikhail baryshnikov thank you

Channel: Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

Views: 295,984

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Id: 8yEd6DRFSqg

Length: 71min 16sec (4276 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2013