November 4-10, 2004

theater

All Mikhail

Dance and theater icon Baryshnikov reflects on 50 years of exploration.

by Janet Anderson

Baryshnikov. Everyone knows who he is. Last week, perhaps the most famous of ballet dancers was in Michigan touring with Forbidden Christmas or the Doctor and the Patient, a play he helped produce and in which he stars. In this production, there are no tour jetes.

"I've been on stage for 50 years," the 56-year-old says by telephone. "Trying new things has never been difficult to me. Rather, I embrace them."

He defected from the Soviet Union in 1974 in self-proclaimed pursuit of artistic freedom. His focus from his first free day has been new work—ballet, modern, experimental—all of it.

So it's no surprise Forbidden Christmas was created by Rezo Gabriadze, an internationally acclaimed writer, director, filmmaker and painter from the Republic of Georgia. Gabriadze is a quirky artist's artist who Baryshnikov grew up admiring, particularly his "Fellini-esque movie comedies."

On New York's West 37th Street, the Baryshnikov Arts Center is rising daily, opening next winter. Here Baryshnikov will fulfill his dream of providing studio and theater space for creative spirits. Gabriadze is among the center's illustrious board members, a who's who of the arts that also includes Pedro Almodovar and Merce Cunningham. ("A bit of name-dropping," he jokes, "though at some point I will nail them down.")

"Rezo wrote a little fable," Baryshnikov explains. "He told me the story and I decided to take it on. The result is not 100 percent theater, not 100 percent dance. It's unusual, a fable. [It's] phantasmagoric."

The tale unfolds in the repressive Stalinist era, when celebrating Christmas was a crime and neighbors protected each other. The central character, Chito (Baryshnikov), suffers personal tragedies and retreats into the belief he is a car. Out of Chito's situation, Gabriazde spins a wry story involving five characters. Chito suffers what Baryshnikov calls a "divine obsession. What some people call crazy. If you think about it, the biggest compliment we have for someone really out of the ordinary is, "She's really crazy.'"

Rehearsals for the five-member cast under Gabriadze were "very intense, and somewhat difficult, because we had to work through interpreters to translate Georgian, Russian and English so all participants could understand." Baryshnikov created his own car movements. "I tried to avoid the most obvious mistakes, like being a bad imitation of Marcel Marceau, and to get to the psychology of the man." (And, yes, Baryshnikov will insert a car key into his lapel and drive around the stage.)

In mid-December, Forbidden Christmas' six-month tour will wind up in Los Angeles. "It will be the end. This is a nonprofit, noncommercial project," he states definitely. "I have to move on. It's more than enough time for me to return to real life." With a verbal shrug discernable even over the telephone, he observes, "That is the way we work as dancers. We move from project to project. Each ends and we go on to the next."

"Don't think I am ready to stop work," he adds quickly. "Absolutely, I should hope to still have so much work. But there is nothing in the close future."

After all, he'll always have his secure niche as one of the greatest dancers of all time to fall back on, right?

"I don't want a secure little place," he snorts, dismissing the ballet mantle. "I can do my little dance projects and I would be " BORED!" he continues in a voice that rattles the phone.

"I would hate myself for trying to just keep doing what I know," continues Baryshnikov. "I am trying to push myself in my slightly old age."

Because as accomplished as the man is, part of what makes him great is his perpetual quest to rediscover himself.

"I am just trying to realize who I am on stage, trying to find my human element," he explains. "Listen to your heart and where it takes you, and trust where it takes you. That's what I'm all about."

Forbidden Christmas or the Doctor and the Patient, Thu., Nov. 4, 8 p.m., Fri., Nov. 5, 8 p.m., Sat., Nov. 6, 2 and 8 p.m., $50-$57, Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., 215-569-9700, www.baryshnikovdancefoundation.org.