TBT: Mikhail Baryshnikov’s First Dance Magazine Cover
The October 1974 issue marked Mikhail Baryshnikov’s first of over a dozen Dance Magazine cover appearances.
“No other young male dancer has been so praised, inside and outside Russia, as Mikhail Baryshnikov over the past five years,” wrote Olga Maynard in the cover story, which was accompanied by a detailed report of American Ballet Theatre’s summer season in New York City, during which Baryshnikov had guested for four performances opposite Natalia Makarova mere weeks after he had been granted political asylum in Canada. The then–26-year-old was the subject of a maelstrom of public and press attention for both his reasons for defecting—to dance new-to-him ballets by new choreographers with new partners—and his instantly legendary performances with ABT.
While he became—and remains—a household name, his professed goals in 1974 were simpler: “I must dance roles with heart, with feeling, whether they are in large or small ballets,” he told us. “I will hope that choreographers in the West will be interested in me as a dancer, enough to want to make ballets for me.”
