bart Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Last week's The New Yorker has a brief Talk of the Town piece by Joan Acocella on Mikhail Baryshnikov's new project: a center on West 37th St. that will facilitate collaborations in the performing arts. The program will include fellowships, mentoring, and residencies to "mid-career artists, allowing them to work, at no cost, in big, clean, airy studios." Among established artists who have come to observe and comment on projects is Merce Cunningham. QUOTE: "More than anything ... Mikhail Baryshnikov intends the center as a meeting place. 'I wanted to bring people together in an informal way,' he says. ... "I think better collaboratiove juices grow when peole meet on free turf. You're a poet; I'm a filmakmaker. You're a choreographer; I[m a playwright. People see each other's work and exchange telephone numbers, and that's how it works.'" QUOTE: "Baryshnikov hasn't forgotten his youth, in Russia. All he longed for then was to be a ballet dancer, but he found the dance world confining: "It's a ghetto. People talk about how they are tired, and their injuries, and it's not fair that this one is dancing this and that one is dancing that.' He sought out people in other fields .... They were the ones who taught me everything about music. I discovered Kirov Opera with them. That was my university." -- It kind of reminds me of the vision that motivated Diaghelev and Balanchine years ago. Any comments? Link to comment
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