{"id":5684,"date":"2010-06-24T07:29:58","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T14:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=5684"},"modified":"2015-12-14T01:49:46","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T08:49:46","slug":"baryshnikov-and-laguna-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=5684","title":{"rendered":"Baryshnikov and Laguna in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Place<\/a>
Place (St\u00e4lle) Mikhail Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna Photo by Bengt Wanselius<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always Hutzpah<\/em> to go onstage,\u201d said Mikhail Baryshnikov to the crowd of starry-eyed photographers and journalists who attended the press conference this morning at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv. Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna are in Israel to perform \u201cThree Solos and a Duet\u201d featuring the works of contemporary choreographers Mats Ek, Alexei Ratmansky and Benjamin Millepied. Performances will take place at the Suzanne Dellal Centre on June 26, and the Herzliya Performing Arts Center on June 28 \u2013 30.<\/p>\n

The dancers accepted the deluge of shutter-clicks with equanimity and charming smiles, responding generously to the many questions of their eager fans, who just happened to be journalists. Laguna, with her enigmatic smile was a strong presence in the room, yet remained silent for the most part and left her dance partner to express his views on everything from classical ballet, to video and performing on Israel. On the latter topic, Baryshnikov stated that he did not consider cancelling his visit to Israel, saying, \u201cI made this commitment long ago. The US is hugely concerned\u2026what happens right now in this part of the world painfully affects our country\u2026I hope the conflict will be resolved as soon as possible,\u201d and later in the conversation stated, \u201cArt should not be about politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Classical ballet formed Baryshnikov\u2019s \u201cfirst memories of professional dance. My mother took me to the opera, ballet, theatre\u2026it triggered my imagination and left a dent on my heart. I believed it is the most expressive form of dance though it has only a few steps\u2026when you bring something personal into it, it can be an extraordinary art.\u201d Yet he noted that having stopped dancing classical ballet in his late 30s, at this point in his career, he has performed contemporary dance far longer than classical. Performance is intensely meaningful to Baryshnikov, who said that despite being an agnostic, \u201cThose few minutes onstage in front of an audience are the closest to any kind of spirituality.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is perhaps not surprising to learn that he views video as giving \u201ca very murky layer of text to your performance and does not compare to live. I believe that dance is a live form of art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the program the two will perform, Baryshnikov said that there are pieces that constitute \u201ca personal statement, an accumulation of recent years working with choreographers\u2026three very different choreographers of different generations. Nonetheless there is a connection; they reflect values which we both pursue.\u201d According to Baryshnikov the works reflect the \u201clife experiences and complexities of people who have lived\u2026These are pieces done in recent years. The choreographer says \u2013 Ok, you are 60 years old. She or he has to re-evaluate their own ideas, get something out of you which other people don\u2019t see\u2026There is a solo in which I dance with my 17 year old self, dancing with my own image \u2013 kind of bizarre. Ratmansky is inspired by the legendary Russian composer –\u00a0it\u2019s about lost love, a look back to my upbringing, my tender age. The most powerful, most significant is Mats Ek\u2019s \u201cPlace.\u201d It\u2019s fun to do, very challenging, dramatic dance theatre, very typical of Mats\u2019 work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at the current dance scene, which has recently lost many of its icons such as Pina Bausch, Maurice Bejart and Merce Cunningham, Baryshnikov said, \u201cWe are a bit lost. I\u2019m luckily not a choreographer feeling a pressure to create something in the highest order. It\u2019s a bit of Russian roulette to create something.\u201d Noting that sometimes one fails and it\u2019s necessary to \u201cjump back on the horse. Not always the whole back, sometimes you hold onto the neck to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

How is the dance experience different, now that he is in his 60s? Baryshnikov said, \u201cI know it\u2019s the end of the road for me. Not a painful or sad, but bittersweet occasion.\u201d He dances with the knowledge, \u201cThis might be the last time I will dance\u2026and it might happen soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

In talking about what inspires him, Baryshnikov recalled Robert Rauschenberg saying, \u201cI wake up and think \u2013 what should I do? What shouldn\u2019t I do? \u2026I\u2019ll do that<\/em>. Take the chances, the extreme \u2013 demand from yourself the maximum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThree Solos and a Duet\u201d
\n<\/strong>Performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna<\/p>\n

Valse-Fantasie<\/strong>, Music by Glinka, Choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky
\nSolo for Two<\/strong>, Music by Arvo Part, Choreographed by Mats Ek
\nYears later<\/strong>, Music by Philip Glass, Choreographed by Benjamin Millepied
\nPlace<\/strong>, Music by Flaskkvartetten, Choreography by Mats Ek
\nSuzanne Dellal Centre: 03-5105656, www.suzannedellal.org.il<\/a>
\nHerzliya Centre for the Performing Arts: 1-700702929, kuppa@netvision.net.il<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s always Hutzpah to go onstage,\u201d said Mikhail Baryshnikov to the crowd of starry-eyed photographers and journalists who attended the press conference this morning at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv. Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna are in Israel to perform \u201cThree Solos and a Duet\u201d featuring the works of contemporary choreographers Mats Ek, Alexei […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}