Baryshnikov, Mikhail Nikolayevich

Baryshnikov, Mikhail Nikolayevich (1948- ), Soviet-born dancer, noted for his technical prowess and engaging stage personality. Born in Riga (in present-day Latvia), on January 28, 1948, Baryshnikov joined the Kirov Ballet in 1967. He defected to the West in 1974 while touring Canada with the Bolshoi Ballet. He later danced primarily with the American Ballet Theatre (serving as its director from 1980 to 1989), where he also produced substantially revised versions of the classics (such as Don Quixote, 1978), and the New York City Ballet. Baryshnikov has performed in a broad array of works, from classical ballets to more modern dance roles, employing a range of styles for works by such choreographers as George Balanchine, a Russian-born American, and Twyla Tharp, an American.

From 1990 to 2002 Baryshnikov directed and danced with the White Oak Dance Project, a modern dance company that he co-founded with choreographer Mark Morris. The White Oak Dance Project is the touring company of the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation (established in 1979), an organization that both commissions new works and preserves existing pieces from the dance heritage of the United States. The foundation opened an arts complex (the Baryshnikov Arts Center) in Manhattan in 2005, intended to encourage experimentation and collaboration in the arts, and two years later Baryshnikov announced the addition of a small theatre of some 300 seats to the enterprise.

As an actor, he has appeared in films such as The Turning Point (1978)—for which he received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor—and White Nights (1985), and in plays such as Metamorphosis (1989), based on a story by the Czech author Franz Kafka, and Beckett Shorts, four one-act plays by Samuel Beckett, which included music by Philip Glass and was staged in 2007. He reached an even wider audience when he took a starring role in the hit television series Sex and the City in 2003.

Baryshnikov was presented with a Kennedy Center Honors award in 2000, one of many awards recognizing his talent and contribution to dance and the arts.