The magic of Baryshnikov, live, has finally trickled down (or up?) to the Mountain West. And here in Salt Lake City, sell-out crowds await America's most charismatic male dancer for concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 24 and 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theatre. (Actually, sponsoring Ballet West indicates there may be a few seats left for each show, high in the top balcony.)
Baryshnikov himself is surprised at the public enthusiasm that persists for his White Oak Project, a group of modern dancers he and choreographer Mark Morris put together to dance selected modern works on tour.In 1990, newly resigned from the directorship of the American Ballet Theatre, Baryshnikov had repaired to the peace and quiet of White Oak Plantation in Florida, owned by his friend, paper magnate Lawrence Gilman, to lick his wounds and define a new direction in his dancing life.
The White Oak Project was supposed to last a season or two, he told Jody Leader of the Los Angeles Daily News, but three years and eight national tours later, it has become something more permanent.
"It has met all my expectations," Baryshnikov said. "I'm very, very happy. I had never wanted to work continuously like a lot of modern dance companies do, but here we are."
In Salt Lake City, the company will dance the three principal works of its tour program, as it continues its progress through 12 Western cities.
"Jocose," set to Maurice Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Piano, is by modern pioneer Hanya Holm, a pupil of Mary Wigman, who first set the piece on the Don Redlich Company in the 1980s.
"Pergolesi," to music of that early 18th-century Italian master, is a 20-minute solo for Baryshnikov, reworked for him by Twyla Tharp from a duet they danced together.
"Mosaic and United," a new work for full company by Mark Morris, features String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 of Henry Cowell, a composer whom the innovative Morris finds inspirational. Music will be by the White Oak Chamber Ensemble, with Michael Boriskin conducting.
Baryshnikov's seven company members had former affiliations with such major companies in modern dance as Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, Twyla Tharp, American Ballet Theater, Mark Morris and Donald Byrd/The Group.
Working with modern dancers is different from working with ballet dancers, Baryshnikov told Leader.
"They are much more mature. They usually come from a university background. They started dancing in college, not groomed to be dancers from age 6 or 7, like ballet dancers. It was their conscious decision as adults to be dancers. They know more about life and art. They are much more responsible. Not to put classical dancers down, but they mature much later. They come to the company as babies, really."
Baryshnikov avers that modern dance is now his main interest - an interest that began 10 years ago, when he started to work with Martha Graham, Taylor, Tharp and Morris, appearing on their programs. Partly from disinterest, partly because of an injury-prone knee, he stopped dancing classical ballet five or six years ago. Now he says he'd rather spend a free evening watching a Merce Cunningham piece than the ABT's newest extravaganza.
The facts of Baryshnikov's life are almost common knowledge among American balletomanes. Born in Latvia, USSR, in 1948, he joined the Leningrad Kirov Ballet in 1966, immediately being recognized as an exciting soloist.
In 1974 he defected in Toronto during a Kirov tour, and the same year appeared with the American Ballet Theater for the first time. Further appearances and projects included Balanchine's New York City Ballet and various modern companies, and appearing in the movies "Turning Point" and "White Nights." In 1980 he became artistic director of ABT, where he was principal dancer and choreographer of many productions.
Baryshnikov does not consider his change to modern dance a comedown, but rather a natural progression. Ballet dancers with rare exceptions dance no later than 40, then must make career changes. Now 45, Baryshnikov sees modern dance as his future, though he still takes a full-out ballet class every day ("I pay my $9 and go in like everybody else") and considers himself in the best shape of many years.