Baryshnikov- changes in physique

[silvy]

I have come across a videotape called "World's Youth Ballet", which features Misha when he won the gold medal at Moscow Ballet Competition (I understand he was still a student at the Vaganova School at that time). I was very surprised to see how bulky his thighs were and his overall physique, in comparison with films of him of his later years, when he had already defected. Anyone knows how he managed to change his looks so much? In his later years he looks much more elongated. Was it the teachers, the change of training, or something else?

By the way, the tape I mentioned is worth seeing for the galaxy of future stars that were competing there at that time.

Silvy

[Thalictum]

He was not still a student; he graduated in 1966 and that competition was in 1969.

[Paul Parish]

Hey, Silvy, That's a great question -- Many of us have noticed htis over the years, I'm sure. I'm no expert on this, but others may be able to correct my errors and fill in some --

Of c ourse, one thing, simple as it sounds, is he's gotten older. He hadn't lost all his baby-fat in hte video you're talking about.

But seriously, Soloviev, who was the other great dancer of his day, in a sense his great rival, had even bigger thighs -- with fantastic elevatoin and power in reserve that he rarely used all of. That heroic Russian style required tremendous elevation, and of course that requires a GREAT deal of thigh and glute strength.

When Baryshnikov came here he did not have THAT kind of competition -- big thighs were less attractive here -- and the way Americans danced involved a lot more finesse. Well, some Americans -- but if you look at Helgi TOmasson on hte competition in Moscow tape -- he won the silver the year Baryshnikov won he gold -- Tomasson's finesse was really remarkable, and involved a lot of quick changes of speed and of direction, and development and co-ordination of the smaller muscles.

WHen Baryshnikov went over to Balanchine, he was asked to dance much tighter, more changes of direction, more turned out, with quicker release....

And somewhere in there he injured a knee pretty badly, which always causes the thighs to lose some tissue. The quads deteriorate faster than any other muscle with lack of exercise, so it's pretty easy to lose thigh muscle-mass -- just sitting around a lot....

His knees have continues to give him trouble -- I remember when he was dancing Graham's El Penitente, he learned the dance from a tape of David and Marni Wood; point is, there are lots of knee-bourrees in it, and Marni (she's chair of hte dance department at Berkeley, and he perrformed it here, we talked about it afterwards) was impressed that he DID THEM ALL, given the state of his knees.

[Thalictum]

It's interesting that current Russian male dancers like Scherbakov at the Kirov or Gudanov at the Bolshoi are able to generate enormous elevation with slim calves, thighs, etc.

And the classes Baryshnikov took here were different and less heavy than what he'd taken in Russia, although Pushkin's classes at the Kirov changed after the NYCB visit to Russia in 1962.

[silvy]

Thanks so much Thalictum for your alert on the fact that Baryshnikov had already graduated at the time of the competition.

And thanks so much Paul for your very informative report on Baryshnikov and his change of training. I had not thought of his knee problem when I put up my post, but, of course, having problems in your knees make you lose a lot of thgh strength. It is the very first thing that sport doctors ask you to do when you have knee problems: to build strength on the quads (boring, boring exercises ).

By the way, what you mention about Misha having to dance in a more detailed "minute" way reminded very much of a tape on Irek Mukhamedov, where he tells us about how he had to change his way of dancing when he entered Britain's Royal Ballet - to concentrate more on small steps, as opposed to Bolshoi's grand style.