27-06-2008

His appearances on stages worldwide
as well as on both the big and
small screen have propelled Mikhail
Baryshnikov to a level of prominence
rarely seen in the field of
dance.
Baryshnikov may have just
turned 60, but for a man who was
once described by Time magazine
as “the greatest living dancer,” age
is not a drawback. The multifaceted
artist with the fascinating life story
is once more about to defy age
and gravity with a series of performances
at the Athens festival’s
Pireos 260 venue, July 5 to 10.
In what is bound to be a memorable
performance, Baryshnikov
has teamed up with acclaimed
Swedish choreographer Mats Ek,
dancer Ana Laguna as well as American
dancer and choreographer
David Neumann.
Titled “Three Duets,” the program
will feature three choreographies.
The evening will kick off with the
2005 “Memory,” choreographed
by Mats Ek, who will also be performing
alongside Laguna. A world
premiere, Neumann’s “The Common
Foreign Language of the Red-
Haired People,” with the music of
Philip Glass, is up next and will be
performed by Baryshnikov and
Neumann. The legendary artist
will get together with Laguna for the
final part, 2007’s “Place,” once more
directed by Ek.
Baryshnikov, whose striking
dance talent is coupled with a nat-
28
Dance legend defies
age and gravity
ural charm, making him captivating
on stage, was born in Latvia –
then part of the USSR – in 1948.
He was spotted at an early age
and went on to become a star
dancer at the Kirov Ballet Theater,
having well-known local choreographers
create works especially for
him. Despite the benefits that came
with his ballet star status, Baryshnikov
longed to break away from the
strict barriers of the genre and experiment
with more contemporary
forms of dance. In 1974, while
on tour in Canada, he defected and
moved to the USA.
His dream came true in New York,
where he gradually turned his full
attention to contemporary dance.
His resume includes working with
landmark choreographer George
Balanchine as well as Jerome Robbins
at the New York City Ballet and
a 10-year stint as artistic director of
the American Ballet Theater.
Among his other initiatives,
Baryshnikov, along with Mark Morris,
founded the White Oak Dance
Project, which created new choreographies
to challenge modern dance.
A few years ago, the Baryshnikov
Dance Foundation opened the
Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan,
an institution dedicated to
bringing together and promoting
the work of artists from different
countries and diverse fields.
Keen to keep broadening his
horizons, Baryshnikov has tried
out the big screen and left his mark
ATHENSPLUS • FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2008
ON STAGE
BY KATERINA VOUSSOURA
Mikhail Baryshnikov set to give a series of performances at the Pireos 260 venue
Mikhail Baryshnikov will join forces with Ana Laguna for one of the ‘Three Duets,’ Mats Ek’s 2007 ‘Place.’ [Bengt Wanselius]
A DREAM TEAM
OF MODERN DANCE
Swedish choreographer Mats
Ek is the son of the
distinguished Birgit Cullberg,
founder of the acclaimed
Cullberg Ballet. Perhaps the
best known representative of
the contemporary Swedish
dance scene, Ek was artistic
director of the Cullberg
Ballet from 1985 to 1993 and
has collaborated with many
acclaimed dance companies,
including the Nederlands
Dans Theater.
Award-winning New Yorkbased
dancer and
choreographer David
Neumann has had a lot of
theater experience which he
likes to incorporate in
dance. His work is wellknown
for its humorous
twists.
Award-winning dancer Ana
Laguna, who is married to
Ek, has been a member of
the Nederlands Dans
Theater as well as the
Cullberg Ballet and has
given numerous memorable
performances. A devoted
dance teacher, she has left
her mark on the theater as
well.
on the small screen. As the womanizing
ballet dancer Yuri Kopeikine
in 1977’s “The Turning Point,” he
was nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Actor in a Supporting
Role, while in what must have
been an emotionally challenging
role, he played the part of a ballet
star who has defected but whose
plane is forced to land in the USSR
in 1985’s “White Nights,” starring
alongside Gregory Hines.
One of the striking things about
the volatile artist is that he has managed
to become a household name
among different generations. Considered
by many to be a sex symbol
and having often made news in
newspaper and magazine columns,
he has succeeded in wooing over
younger people too, after a series of
appearances as Aleksandr Petrovsky,
the eccentric artist boyfriend
of Sarah Jessica Parker’s trademark
character Carrie Bradshaw in
the hit HBO series “Sex & the City.”
Recently, Baryshnikov also revealed
his talent as a photographer,
with his “Merce My Way” exhibition
depicting the work of choreographer
Merce Cunningham that went
on display in New York from March
to May.
Baryshnikov, the man who admitted
in an interview with Larry
King in 2002 that art (and dance) is
a selfish experience and that a
dancer’s life is a hard life is bound
to present a definitely intriguing
show.
Theater from the
American South
to Vienna Woods
Avant-garde German theater as well as an
award-winning 20th-century play by the Greek
National Theater are among this week’s theater
highlights.
The world-renowned, Berlin-based
Schaubuhne am Lehniner Platz theater company
is back, following last summer’s sold-out
performances at the 2007 Athens Festival. Wellknown
for its groundbreaking approaches to
classical plays, the company will stage Tennessee
Williams’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” June
30 to July 2, with “Hamlet” scheduled for the
following week.
In a challenging mise-en-scene, director
Thomas Ostermeier, who has also been the
company’s artistic director since 1999, has taken
Williams’s play out of its original setting –
the Deep American South – and transferred it
to the present day. Through the father-and-son
conflict, all the problems that usually plague
family life, such as lies and inheritance issues,
are brought to the surface.
Founded in 1962, the company’s aim is to
challenge social and political conventions. Its
repertoire further includes works by contemporary
playwrights. The current production premiered
in Berlin in January 2007 to rave reviews.
Acclaimed German theater actors including
Josef Bierbichler, Kirsten Dene and Mark
Waschke play the main characters. Unfortunately
– for those without tickets – both “Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Hamlet” are sold out.
In his first production as artistic director of
the National Theater, Yiannis Houvardas is staging
Odon von Horvath’s 1931 play “Tales
from the Vienna Woods.” Set in Vienna before
Hitler’s rise to power, the drama castigates the
hypocrisy of society at the time, through the
story of a young woman who abandons her fiance
after she falls in love with a scoundrel.
The life of Marianne, played by Angeliki
Papoulia, is turned upside down and she faces
rejection from all around her. “Tales from the
Vienna Woods,” which won the Kleist award,
is an incisive commentary on the functioning
of late 1920s and early 30s Viennese society.
Its importance becomes even greater when
bearing in mind that it was written without the
knowledge of what was to follow, namely the
rise of the Nazi party and ultimately World War
II. This gives today’s audience the hindsight to
view the play in a more comprehensive light.
Houvardas has assembled a strong cast, with
actors Nikos Kouris, Olga Damani, Aleka Paizi
and Themis Bazaka co-starring alongside
Papoulia. The play will be staged June 27 to 30.
Both will be staged at the Pireos 260 venue. For
tickets, contact the Athens Fesival on tel
210.327.2000.
The sold-out performances of “Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof” will take place June 30 to July 2.
[Matthias Horn/Vorabfoto]