Dear friends,
For the opening of my new blog about Ballet, Art, History & other
deep and beautiful issues, I thought the best way will be just like I start my
series of lectures "Classical Ballet – The Crown Jewel of Western
Culture".
First lecture of my series is
called "Mikhail Baryshnikov – How does a Russian defector becomes an
American cultural icon". Regarding all the things you can say about the
ballet superstar, personally, I like to tell his story through the eyes of his very
frequent American partner – Gelsey Kirkland.
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| Gelsey Kirkland |
Gelsey was born in 1952, four years after Baryshnikov, in Pennsylvania
US. Just like her older sister Joanna she started Training classical Ballet and
took it as seriously as it can be – besides training for hours at home with a
friend in all kinds of "flexibility torturing techniques ", she was
so passionate about being a ballerina that she would even practice in her sleep
– In her autobiography "Dancing On My Grave", she notes she used to
sleep walk doing all sorts of ballet moves, and when she was about 13 her mom
even caught her at 3 A.M trying to get out of the house with her ballet bag on
her shoulder. With this kind of will power, nothing could have stopped her –
for better or worse…
In 1972, after 5 years in the New York City Ballet, in which she had
earned the personal appreciation of the "God of The Company" - George
Balanchine, she joined the company on tour in Russia. Her first performance
there was a dreadful experience – unaware of the fact that the Russian stages
are slightly declined (for all the vast audience to see and also to make the
jumps appear higher), and despite of what all the adoring dance reviewers
wrote, she thought she danced horribly. She took it so bad, that she had stopped
eating for almost the entire tour and for many days she trained and performed
with nothing going in her mouth – an experience that began a life struggle with
eating disorders.
After several other performances on the tour, Gelsey was the only dancer
from the company that wanted to go and see the Vaganova Academy. After seeing a
girl's ballet class in the famous academy, where Pavlova, Nureyev, Baryshnikov
and lots of other Great Russian dancers were trained, she was completely
mesmerized by the fully synchronized and accurate Russian technique. There and
then she understood she will never be a Russian ballerina…
Gelsey was also the only one who managed to sneak inside the "Kirov
Theatre" to see a man's ballet class. She recalls her first reaction as
being unimpressed to say the least, she saw the Russian dancers as being weary
and injured, in a way that they looked like they might break down any minuet. And
then came inside the studio a young man with blond hair and a turtleneck
sweater, a young man that everybody seemed to respect very much.
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| Turtleneck Sweater |
Sitting next
to Gelsey was an old man who very surprisingly spoke English (an English
speaking Russian old man is hard to find in St.Petersburg even in these days,
not to mention 40 years ago..), that told her that this is "Mikhail
Baryshnikov".
"This is Mikhail Baryshnikov?? The Great Russian superstar? That
short boy with the strange body proportion?". The big disappointment and
doubt were only there for several minutes just until cleared the studio for and
moved to the bar, in order for Baryshnikov to rehearse the variation of Don
Quixote. Her first thought was that:
"He was the greatest male
dancer on the planet. His talent was beyond superlatives. He vaulted into the
air with no apparent preparation. His steps seem to blur together without
losing any definition; He was literally a motion picture. It seemed to me he
had somehow managed to weld technique and style into a perfect voice. The man
on my right leaned over again, informing me with discernible Russian pride, '
And, you know, he's just back from vacation, still trying to get over foot
injury.' I was transfixed."
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| "Vaulted in the Air" |
This was the first time the two dancers met, and two years later, after
Baryshnikov's defection to the west, Gelsey was his regular (but not the only) partner
including in Baryshnikov's first
television début of Don Quixote:
I hope you have enjoyed the reading of this very special moment in
classical ballet, by my opinion, and you are most welcome to post your comments…
Next time my dear friends, I will share with you some of the artistic analysis of the amazing romantic ballet
"Giselle".
Wish you all the peace of mind, Love and inspiration,
Guy Baum.
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| "Gelsey Kirkland & Mikhail Baryshnikov" |
P.S,
To read more about the amazing life story of Gelsey Kirkland, you are advised
to read her autobiography – "Dancing On My Grave", and to view the
complete television début of Baryshnikov you may purchase the DVD named:
"Baryshnikov Life at Wolf Trap".
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