In May 2010, Mikhail Baryshnikov gave me what is probably the best interview of his life. MB is not only a great artist but was a personal fixture during my formative years in dance and ballet. I watched him up close during most of the decade he ran American Ballet Theater. I read everything on him that I can.
Parts of our interview relating to his solo concert later that May went into my City Arts piece on him. But realizing how extraordinary the material was, I immediately asked his permission to write up the entire interview for Ballet Review. He agreed enthusiastically, but said he wanted to check his remarks on one specific subject. When I put the interview together, I wound up excising that topos completely from the interview but still sent it to him. That was last January. Soon after, Kristin Miles from the Baryshnikov Arts Center told me that he might want to sit down and go over some things in the piece. But I have been waiting in vain for this to happen. Two months ago I emailed her: “Will you please tell him for me that our interview is the best one with him I have ever read, and he is doing himself a disservice if he doesn’t see it through into print.”
And that is the truth.
I haven’t heard back from her. I’m under no legal obligation but I wouldn’t want to publish it cold because a lot of the piece concerns things he doesn’t often talk about.
Why don’t people contact BAC and urge Baryshnikov to sign off on this piece?