TEL AVIV, Israel—“I’m not that old …” answered the king of classical ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov, provoking laughter from the crowd. His quip followed a reporter’s question asking where he has gotten all the energy to keep performing as long as he has.
Baryshnikov, considered one of the greatest ballet dancers of our time, arrived at a press conference held in November 2011 at the Susan Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv, Israel, on the occasion of the show “In Paris,” in which he plays the lead.
The artistic giant and divine dancer, now over 60 years old, emitted warmth and captivating grace. He answered questions patiently and politely, and even humorously.
In the last few years Baryshnikov has diversified his career by performing in movies, on television, and in theater. He says that creating art is the responsibility we have to the future.
Furthermore, he claims that in any artistic forum the artist might engage in, he carries an eternal quality that is not consumed and which continues to create its expression, whether in movement, voice, or tone.
“Everyone has his own signature,” he says, “like the great composers who you can identify from the first musical sentence. You immediately know if it’s Shostakovich or Mendelssohn. Choreographers bring in those elements, because a dancer’s body language creates thousands of images that have never been created before.”
Baryshnikov had been invited by the Susan Dellal Centre after having performed there with the dancer Anna Laguna in a show integrating theater and dance.
In the play, “In Paris,” alongside the actress Anna Sinyakina, he has been focusing on theater.
‘In Paris’
“In Paris” is an adaptation of a story written in 1940 by Ivan Bunin, directed by the Russian director Dmitry Krimov, and produced by the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York and the Dmitry Krimov Lab. It ran in mid-November 2011 in Russian accompanied by a Hebrew written translation, at the Susan Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv.
“As you know, art, dance, theater, are not far from each other. But this now is not a dance. It’s about body language and internal intention. Whoever is familiar with director Krimov’s concept knows that movement, dancing, music, and singing constitute a great part of his talent as an artist.
“When on stage, I do not think, ‘Am I an actor, a dancer, or who I am,’ I let myself be led by my instincts and by my partners on stage,” Baryshnikov said.
“In Paris” is a love story about two Russian immigrants in Paris during the ‘30s. Baryshnikov plays a retired general of the White Army who had fled there from the Bolsheviks, and Anna Sinyakina plays a waitress many years younger than he is, working in a restaurant, where they meet.
Baryshnikov explained that while the playwright, Ivan Bunin, had not been deported and lived in exile by choice, “he was anti-communist and one of the best Russian artists of our time. He died in Paris; maybe this is a reflection of his thoughts. This is not a story about theater; it’s a story about people in a typical, classic situation.”
‘The Last Mohicans’
Baryshnikov, who fled from communism to the West, says: “I believe that this play is about the Russian White Army that was chased by the Bolsheviks and the Red Army at the end of the Russian Civil War. Some of its members fled to central Europe, some to Paris, others to London and to Istanbul. They were people from the aristocracy who had to drive cabs and work in restaurants to make a living.” [The White Army was a name given to the joint forces that fought against the Red Army at the time of the Russian Civil War.]
When asked about identifying with the role of the general he was playing, his voice softened and one could feel the sadness in his words and how deeply touched he is by this issue: “Any Russian who grew up after World War II during the ‘50s and ’60s, like myself, focused on modern Russian literature that portrayed the Russian army as the hero and the Red Army chasing the White Army, throwing it into the Black Sea.
“But there is also a lot of Russian literature depicting the life of those people in the post-revolution era. Those were noble and well-educated people, highly motivated, who believed in God and the Tsar. Beautiful people. They were the last Mohicans.
“The Bolsheviks started eliminating them and then Stalin [continued to]; they were wiped off the face of the earth. We knew about them, and they are remembered with nostalgia.
“I have met those people. They came to my performances and I talked to them. They were so impressive and cultural—the way they talked, dressed, how they tied their ties, how they moved about. They were part of an international Russian intellectual circle. They were noble people and there was sadness in their eyes. Most of them did not go back to Russia and built a new life in the West. They lost in the Civil War, and they live elsewhere.”
On Jerusalem
“I am an orthodox Russian. I am not religious, and I don’t take sides in any conflict. Maybe it is a cliché, but I really believe art should heal, and not separate. …”
“Regarding Jerusalem, again, my father was a member of the Communist Party, and my mother and grandmother baptized me in secret without his knowing, and that says a lot. Later I studied both the Christian and the Jewish traditions and I continue to be curious about it, but I haven’t found the openness or the passion in me for it. Who knows, maybe it will happen one day, one can never tell …”
“My visit to Jerusalem was one of the most unforgettable experiences in my life. I’m saying that from the bottom of my heart. It was extraordinary.
“I came to understand the expression ‘When the skies meet the earth.’ There is something about the quarters, the stone—I can’t put my finger on it—the beauty, the scene, the light, and the stature of the people, no matter their religious affiliation, the right to walk on those stones— it’s a movement that is guided by something from outside. The only thought I had was that it belonged to us all, all over the world; I believe Jerusalem belongs to all of us. It must be so.”
The Importance of the Arts
Baryshnikov is also a photographer. He recounted: “I started taking pictures some 40 years ago. I do not write a journal or memoirs. Photography is my only way of documentation.
“I also photograph different styles of dance: flamenco, tango, hip-hop. It’s a great school for me. As a dancer, when I’m in the crowd, watching the dancers, I sort of anticipate the next movement and try to capture it, because even in the most mediocre dancing one can witness, a moment of perfection.”
“The importance of art in general … from my personal experience, the more I perform and travel, and when I have the time, I go to see whatever I can.
“When I was raising my children, I took them to see Cinderella and Swan Lake. It is not a secret that to expose young people to art is of essential importance. I think it is a test for every parent, school, or an art promoter. It is an investment to the future.
“The Nobel laureate poet Joseph Brodsky once suggested that in the future, when people would run for elections, instead of talking about their economical, political and tax-related policies, it would be nice to talk about Dostoevsky, Zola, etc. Then you would really know who is who, and would be able to give your name and enable yourself and your family to be governed by those personas. I think it’s an interesting suggestion.”
“In Paris” will open at California’s Berkeley Repertory April 25 and is scheduled for the Lincoln Center Festival in August.
