This is footage from a film, but I imagine the director telling Baryshnikov "Right, we need a practice scene, do what you normally do" and this is the end result.
Many sacrifices are made to be able to perform at this level of skill, but as a ballet dancer I can tell you it is all worth it. There is no greater feeling than to fly through the air and truly dance from the depths of your soul. It is an irreplaceable feeling more people should experience. It takes blood, sweat, and tears, but the results are well worth it.
His feet must be in pain! The female ballet dancers are lighter in weight. Of course they suffer too! What a great man! I cry when I see them dance for the art! So much passion and determination I don't have for anything.
I saw him dance The Nutcracker in 1977, on his first American tour with ABT. He was shining and glorious, and the whole world loved him. (Well, not Russia.) It was like watching a god come to earth. I'll never forget it.
When I was very young age 5 through 9 I wanted more than anything to dance like that,.. my father though being homophobic was angry at the mere idea of his son wanting to be a dancer. I often wonder now at age 49, what my life would have been had I been able to simply be what I wanted so long ago. instead, I played football, joined the army 5 days after my 17th birthday and ended up a disabled vet.
MrMentalflossed Aww D: I'm sorry you went through that. You should have been able to do whatever you wanted. (This doesn't help you, I know; I just felt moved to comment)
MrMentalflossed you should have followed your dream my friend. I went to ballet class age five but was put off because i was the only boy in the class. My mother was a dancer and encouraged me. It was my choice to quit, but now age 39 i have deep regrets. Im an artist and musician now but how i wish i would have continued ballet. Respects to you though for serving in the army.
@@michaelhanrahanmoore1622 you stated that you had your mother's support. OP stated that his father stopped him. It's so easy to say, "Follow your dreams no matter what." But reality is that it isn't easy when you don't have the support of your parents. We don't know OP's situation. His father may have physically beat him, emotionally abused him, and/or threatened to kick him out of the house if pursued his dream. We just don't know. It's hard to say screw it when you are a child/teenager with no experience, no money, little education, and little wisdom. You don't have the tools necessary to succeed at that age, unless you are provided with a support system. You need someone to financially support you while you obtain such skills, and hone your skills. You also need someone to encourage you emotionally and not call you a "faggot." And you need someone who will guide you through life based on their experience and thus gain a bit of their wisdom. It sounds as if OP didn't have any of that. Under his circumstances, I can understand him and not judge as to why he didn't just go ahead with his dream.
Good gawd! He is ALL injured! The ankle, the calf, the hip. And I don't want to imagine his feet. Ballet is so cruel once you look behind the scenes. Probably you shouldn't. :-)
Maloy7800 no joke! I did ballet in high school and college and am now 30. Every joint cracks, I’ve had multiple knee injuries, knee surgery, hip surgery, back problems. It’s a beautiful form of art but you’re forcing your body into unnatural positions which makes the joints vulnerable
@@HayleySulfridge Same here. I never required surgery but recall having muscle and joint pain for years on end. Nobody ever talks about that. Ballet requires extraordinary physical and mental discipline. A large percentage of dancers are bulimic or anorexic because weight gain is out of the question. I kept a daily calorie diary monitoring every bite of food I ate. Glad that's over!
The moment I saw him practicing jumps on a hard wood floor I felt pretty bad for ballet. Gymnasts also have movements that land hard on the legs, but they use a softer flooring to protect themselves.
Maloy7800 Extreme sports such as ballet, martial arts, and gymnastics ... where you’re constantly stretching and stretching your body to exceed pass its maximum abilities has proven to be very dangerous. You’ll start to notice it when you pass a certain age {40}. I wouldn’t recommend any child to take these sports up.
You can see that one of his legs is injured, he has to put on that bandage to protect his knee. After studying ballet, started late, I wanted to do what baryshnikov does..but starting at 21 that wasn't possible. But I did study for over 10 years. I took up yoga and pilates, and I can see how baryshnikov does those things, you need a strong body, but also a particular type of body.
Baryshnikov was like a god in his young. Even so, 21 wasn't too late ! I started at almost 23 and can do many of his jumps (pirouettes are a different story hahaha). He simply studied at the golden era of russian ballet technique.
I'm sorry, guys, but starting at 21 or 23 or even 18 or 17 or 15 is TOO LATE. You can't "do many of his jumps" or "do what Baryshnikov does" if you start that late. He did not "simply study at the golden era". He went through the most cruel selection process of the Russian ballet. I did it in the USSR for 7 years years as a child, and I didn't even pass the most basic selection. That said, I DO admire both of you for trying to do it at such an "old" age (for ballet). It's never late to start and try, but to get to THAT level, you have to start at 5-6-7, 9 at the latest.
His broke down in his mid to late 30s and he had to modify the roles that he danced. But he had a pretty punishing performing schedule. Had he stayed in Russia he would have performed far less. Once in the west he experimented with jazz, tap and modern dance too. Actually most of his professional career as a performer has now been spent in modern dance on his wonky knees.
It's not just his technical training and being blessed with good body proportions for ballet. What makes Misha special from his student days to this moment is his combination of intellect, modesty, disciplined focus, generosity of spirit - and depth of soul. He is a poet. All those amazing jumps were wonderful - but rhere'a much more to him than technical bravura.
Indeed. He transformed ballet, and the male dancer's role in it, just as Nureyev had done before him. Nureyev brought the male dancer front and center, but Mischa made him earthly, relatable, _human._
Mikhail was Russian trained and that's the differ, he also loved to dance and put the work into it. Also a great choreographer as well as a generous dance partner & teacher. Love you Misha❤ 2:10
I have been a dancer for over 40 years. I have had a lot of teachers tell me I was no good but I never listened to them really. At 53 I continue to practice bar work. Although my body my not be able to do some of the more athletic moves it use to ballet is such a beautiful artist form that some of the most simple movements with the music connect me to God.
@AshlynnBall , those are not weights. he wears knee supporters, since he had multiple injuries in his knees and knee surgeries ( 7 knee surgeries as far as I recall) . he is amazing jumper and his control of the body is perfect even after all those injuries and age. ballet is a very tough art, although very beautiful ...
I was fortunate to see Baryshnikov dance 6 times in the 70s. Amazing. His leaps and turns were always incredible. It was interesting to watch him work on his technique here and it was somehow reassuring to know his dancing wasn't perfect 100% of the time... just 99% of the time. 😜 At least I used to be able to flatten my body against my legs just like he did here. Lol!
LOL I was just saying to my partner "looks like he was past his prime a bit there, 1987...not jumping so lightly, looks kind of heavier somehow. Oh. He's wearing weights."
I really appreciated this scene from the movie. It was the first time I had seen it and all I could think of was the impact on his knees, ankles and feet. It gave me chills to think of his brilliant performances and the impact on all that cartilage… I respect how he transformed his career during the different stages of his life.
I had the great fortune of seeing him dance with the White Oak Project back in the 90s; it was his post- ABT days, and he was experimenting more in interpretive dance. But it was still a privilege to see Baryshnikov's legendary grace and strength. A treasured memory.
@FREEDOM LIGHTRIDER Jeez, chill out. It's just a joke, a reference to the basketball comedy 'White Men Can't Jump' with Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.
We can watch him wherever he is- on the stage or at training/practice...The effect is just the same...HE is a hard working person. "Dance forever Misha, please. It soothes our souls."---I agree with these words. THANK YOU.
He is one of the greatest ballet dancers of all time..................................................He need not say anything look at his dance and when you possess this kind oftalent humility come with it.
Difficult to say. He was fortunate to perform at a time when a great deal of the performances could be filmed or recorded on video. Many other great dancers stayed behind the Iron Curtain. And hundreds of years of dance before motion pictures could be stored at all with any reliability.
@AshlynnBall I think it's ridiculous to brow beat someone for paying someone a compliment.Ballet in particular is suppose to convey wonderment and disbelief, that was the whole purpose of this dance genre to appear unearthly.I also think it's ignorant to expect someone to understand what you go through as a dancer.It's not the audience's job to have to limit their reaction because it may insult the artist.You should be a little more grateful instead of so defensive.
I thought I was the only one who practices in the dark or a dimly lit room. { But my craft is tennis. } Practicing in the dark keeps my mind focused on my techniques. The darkness lessens my sensory input from the eyes. And practicing quietly alone cuts down sensory input from the ears too. All you hear while you’re practicing is the softness quiet inhaling and exhaling of you’re breathing. It’s very meditative. And the darkness energizes me as well.
Barishnikov looks like he's on a tramboline. There is film of Nureyev in class. Nureyev said something like if he misses class for 2 days on the 3 day he faints.
+BosmerMage01 Yeah, then how come there's only one Baryshnikov? He obviously worked harder than most of his peers and that came from him, not his school.
He was brilliant. Strong, flexible enough, and smart. And an artist. There are many dancers of his time that never made it outside russian and didn't got known, but were awesome technically talking. Look up Yuri Soloviev, Mikhail Lavrovsky, and many others I can't recall right now. It was the golden era of russian ballet technique, awesome dancers were born then.
A rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain allowing you to see the strenuous work involved in the art of ballet dance that appears so effortless and graceful.
my instant hero back when he defected. I come to this video often, whenever I am struggling with issues on any level. watch Misha just keep going. and going. and breathing. and stretching. somehow, it helps me face my own struggles.
Although his jumps look effortless, he can tell by his breathing and wrapping up his leg, etc., that it does take a great deal of strength to do what he does.
This guy Barry could jump. They had him do a run and a jump and his verticle leap was somewhere in the high 40s. He was explosive as well. They were wondering how quick he was. So they did a test with him in a short sprint. He had the same speed as a world class sprinter up to 20 yards. So Barry was and is in my opinion the greatest ballet dancer with just pure grace and athleticism. Unbelievable.
Every aspiring dancer should watch this . . . AND every lover of ballet: The grueling, physically and mentally exhausting daily work that goes into making not JUST one of the greatest dancers of the Twentieth Century, but of all time - the commitment not simply of time, but of effort, of pain, of exhaustion performed endlessly. Only the tiniest of tiny fractions of people who take up ballet can even aspire to greatness such as this, much less to achieve it . . . but thank goodness, for lovers and supporters of ballet, that there ARE hundreds, probably thousands, of ballet students who have sufficient fire in their souls to make the attempt. We should all be grateful to Baryshnikov for allowing us this tiny glimpse into the regimen that made him great and kept him great throughout his astonishing career. Bravo, maestro, bravo!
Although this is probably true in reality, this is not a glimpse into Baryshnikov's private training. It is a scene from the film Dancers 1987 in which he plays a ballet dancer who gets trouble with his performance in Giselle.
@vanjara Well, needless to say that pisses me off, instead of just saying how awesome he really is or how amazing or how much he has put into his abilities, my first statement applies and regardless of what you think, it is still insulting... He has been denied credit for his abilities his whole life. Im not saying he isn't a singularity, I'm saying who are you to deny him his credit for his feats! Give it where it is due instead of brushing it off to some "Super Human" powers!?! Show respect!
I wanted to see him perform Ballet. It was improve. There was a chair. He took his shirt off. I was less than 50 feet from the stage. The Genius was there for all to see. To feel. To ...
If I had a dream where every person I recognized in the dream was shown in the form of an animal that was most kindred to their being, and then if Michail Baryshnikov showed up in my dream, he would do so as a stag.
He looks like he is in pain. I watch his jumps and it seems like he doesnt go into a deep plie rather springs up into the air and damn straight his knees are going to hurt.
inspiring as always, we need idols and greatest models like Misha, we need to feel inspired and having dreams, without this the society gets divided and we loose the pleasure to wake up in the morning
He is wearing leather ballet flats and he is also wearing weights, this is how he trains his muscles for stamina and strength. He doesn't defy gravity people, it's like saying he hasn't worked his ass off to do what he does. It's like saying the pyramids were built by aliens bc it's impossible that our ancient human civilizations could. It's insulting. He was put down for years for being short & too muscular. He used that to his advantage & showed them what he really is made of, ALL muscle!
Steven Gibilaro Knew surgery in ones future. My skating, dancing and gymnastics took its toll but I wouldn't have changed a thing in my life. Ones body can only take "so much". Mikhail has had his surgeries. Dance on!
