Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotes
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Soviet regime in a way deprived me from my childhood in my homeland, because my father was in military, and after the Yalta agreement he was sent to teach in military academy in Riga, and I was born then.
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What do dancers think of Fred Astaire? It's no secret. We hate him. He gives us a complex because he's too perfect. His perfection is an absurdity. It's too hard to face.
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I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
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I am teaching more. That is what I do best.
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I've always said, 'I am a selector, I am not defector' - the first few phrases in English I learned. I said I hate 'defector'; something defective about the people. It's a bad word.
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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.
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A theater is such a revealing form of art, such a transparent and good actors, they're such powerful individuals. I always kind of dreamt that one day I will open my mouth on stage.
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Just sit and open your eyes and open your heart. It's dance theater.
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Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun.
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People dance at any age.
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He Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.
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Your body actually reminds you about your age and your injuries - the body has a stronger memory than your mind.
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In '74 it was really a very gloomy atmosphere, I would say, to put it mildly.
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I read Russian literature a lot.
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I am not the first straight dancer or the last.
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You can be totally involved, you could admire just the shape of or you could be totally emotionally mushed up into the dance.
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Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.
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When I'm alone, I work sometimes with music, sometimes without and sometimes just listening to NPR.
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Be. Good. To yourself, to other people, to everything you do. It's a norm of life by which people should try to live. Don't waste time. Be interesting and interested.
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What brought me to the theater, no matter you're a Jew or a Russian or Armenian or Latvian, are suddenly illuminated by stage light and one beautiful image of dance.
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Working is living to me.
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The Russian people get so insanely close to each other as friends. Their lives are interrelated so much on an everyday basis.
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To walk across the street is a risk.
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Acting is not my language at all.