Mikhail Baryshnikov - Four Performances in ‘Don Quixote’ (Before 1974) 

Simply put the best male dancer in history. Thank you!

Greatest male ballet dancer in history. No one can touch his solo performances.

For the love of all that is holy. No one will ever compare to him. He had it all: the artistry, the lyricism, the athletic power but the understanding of how to restrain his power at the right moment within the choreography. And his understanding of blending all these qualities until the lines were blurred and all you saw was the dance and the shape of his musical interpretation... He combined all of these qualities in a way that seems to be gone from ballet today. I think only Vladimir Vasiliev, and perhaps also Bruhn and Nagy, had these qualities as well, but Misha and Vasiliev had that extra technical power and precision. So beautiful. Thank you so much for posting this.

He dances like it's nothing. He makes it look completely effortless and just as if he's doing the whole thing right in the moment off the top of his head. Too many dancers these days look like they are trying so very hard, out of control or just throwing big tricks or extensions. No. This is what we should have, control, exuberance, artistry and power. His musicality is so spot on. Always a joy to see him and I'm so happy he was filmed so much.

I thank God to be alive and to be able to rejoice in such wondrous beauty.

It's so much more than technique or musicality. There's this deep fundamental purity in Misha - purity of intent, whole-heartedness, modesty. No one can teach this. He is living in a perpetual state of grace.

Love to see his dancing at all ages, thx for posting

I like it so much that he does not perform the same thing, but changes the variation: here and there he waves his hand in a different way, here and there he adds something with his feet ))) a greatest artist

Misha ' s dancing takes my breath away! Such an attack on every step, such heights and grace and power! I was lucky to see him perform once, in Detroit. I can certainly see why he is a legend!

He's the best male dancer !!!!!!

I have the third piece with Ludmilla Semenyaka on a video. It is danced with such panache, style and ease that I used to show it to my students to demonstrate attack and brio in allegro. Misha was truly the best male dancer I have ever seen.

BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ENCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

👣👣 Amazing dancer. And Beautyful soul . 💌

The speed of those spins! WOW! What a great video, thanks for posting.

Delicacy of touch with intriguing lifts for his prima ballerina.The steps are in perfect synchronicity, hence brings the audience into higher realms of dimension. Sometimes Misha halts his body into statuesque immortality.♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

The personification of perfectionism is the only description that does justice to Baryshnikov's performances in EVERY ballet 🩰 he has ever danced in!!! He is a rare and beautiful gem 💎 of a dancer whose name is synonymous with exquisite style grace and power.!!! No one has EVER surpassed Misha!!!! Much love 💕 and respect and awe from a fellow dancer, myself, when I was a member of the Detroit Chamber Ballet 🩰 Society in Woodward Ave. In Detroit, Michigan in the early 1980's n late 1970's!!!

Baryshnikov will always be one of the timeless male dancers. But man, that video quality just keeps getting better and better!

It's crazy, but from these 4 perfomances I love the first one more than others - so young, but so professional ❤ In 4th his solo became perfect 👌

02:18 He simply defies the laws of gravity. Breathtaking.

Maravilloso!!!!!

He became much better in the late 70's into the 80's. He became perfection.

That was seriously unbelievable!

OK this needs to be on every channel for the sake of biomechanics alone…If someone gave Misha a set of ice skates all the Olympic ice skaters would quit.

It is so sad to me that he is getting older, like all of us but his dance is frozen in time. I think he is the best male dancer of this last century. No one could touch him.

Great video John!, many thanks for sharing it!

Merci beaucoup Alex! Mikhail exceptionnel!

Thank you for this wonderful collection!

How does he manage to stay longer in the air than other human beings ? What about universal laws of gravitation ?

imo baryshnikov is the only one ,among the defectors ,that improved again very much after his defection.

For me the first D Quichotte j saw is forever Pontois-Barychnikov at Paris-Opera 1975 ; they danced this some months after at New-York june 1975 , the Top of technic in lightness Noella Pontois

なんて貴重なフィルム！ 亡命したダンサーの記録は全て抹消されると聞きました💦 残っていたんですね💦 途中、日本のアナウンサーの解説も聞こえました😸

Thank you for these fabulous four clips! I agree that the Misha-Gelsey version of Don Q PdD is sublime, despite her few tiny flaws, and they have great chemistry.

Is no one also noticing her (Kuvatova) wow! Russia doesn't have a ballet rep for nothing holy shit

Il y du divin chez Baryshnikov. Comme chez Vasiliev.

John, I have rewatched all these perfomance many, many times, and I guess I am learning Russian by osmosis :) just now I noticed something at 7:55, the presenter says "Grigorovitch, ballet Bolshoi". Semenyaka is very, very young here, this must be a gala when she had just moved from the Kirov to the Bolshoi. This is at least 1972, probably 1973, since Baryshnikov defected mid-1974.

Basilio was actually Baryshnikov's first role with the Kirov!

17:29 OOPS!

Самое чистое совершенство и фиксация движений, не говоря о красоте рук и артистизме

I can only imagine how sick of that variation Baryshnikov felt. No wonder he wanted to leave the USSR, the narrowness of their emploi would strangle any artist.

Guess he was always good!

Something's up with that last chick's feet. I'm like is she flatfooted cause she can barely get directly up on the point of her shoe. She might've made it that high up just by pure determination and hard work. God Bless her!

Hebrews 6:19-20 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.