Another Leap for Misha

Baryshnikov to direct American Ballet Theater

Late spring is the silly season for New York balletomanes. Both the American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet have been performing at Lincoln Center, and the gossip has centered on Mikhail Baryshnikov, who is dancing at City Ballet after four years as A.B.T.'s superstar. Did he get along with Partner Patty? Or did he miss Gelsey? Did Gelsey cancel most of her A.B.T. schedule because she missed Misha? (To their fans, dance stars, like dogs and cats, have no surnames.) Was Mr. B. snubbing Misha by not creating a new ballet for him? Was Misha in fact quitting City Ballet?

Some answers came last week. George Balanchine, 75, was recovering well from a heart bypass operation, which he hopes will enable him to return to choreographing. Baryshnikov will leave City Ballet next year, but hardly in a pout. In September 1980 he will take over as director of A.B.T., the country's grandest and most complex company (87 dancers, about 75 ballets in the repertory and an ambitious touring program). When he inherits this extensive but somewhat raveled empire from Lucia Chase and Oliver Smith, who have been co-directors since 1945, Baryshnikov will be just 32.

A.B.T. has top stars (Natalia Makarova, Cynthia Gregory, Gelsey Kirkland, Anthony Dowell, Fernando Bujones and Baryshnikov, who will also dance). But its stagings of Swan Lake and Giselle show their age, and newer productions like Sleeping Beauty and Raymonda have been artistic disappointments. As the management has grown older, young dancers have been left without guidance, to develop or languish on their own.

None of this daunts Baryshnikov. "When I am onstage, the partner, the orchestra, everything matters. The power to take responsibility is the difference between being rich and well and poor and sick." He plans to start work on classics. "That is where my strength and my training are," he says. "I will find new choreographers. I do not intend to use A.B.T. as some training ground for myself."

What worries A.B.T. dancers is not that Misha will experiment, but that he will be too tough. They may have a point. Baryshnikov feels that "in a way I will be onstage every night. If a ballerina does not do 32 fouettes, then I will feel that I have failed too. In fact, if you put on a ballet that calls for 32 fouettes, you should have a ballerina who can do 46." He is aware of the dancers' worries, however: "I must learn a language to speak to them. If they trust my standards, my judgments, me, it will work."

Most of the troupe want peppier times. Says Soloist Victor Barbee: "Misha has proved that if he wants something he can get it. In maintaining the difficult line between the business and artistic sides of A.B.T., Misha won't give up quickly."

Adds Soloist Cynthia Harvey, "Misha has a low tolerance for boredom. That will be good for those who can keep up."

One of his most knowledgeable supporters is Nora Kaye, a former A.B.T. star and now a board member. "This is a natural step, but not an easy one," she says. "A.B.T. has never had a real artistic policy. Misha is intelligent, and I hope he will find young choreographers and nurture them. He will be good for the dancers, because he is not jealous in any way--and that is rare. But at first there will be trouble. He will have to sweep out the people he can't use. I think he should be courageous."

Right now Baryshnikov sees the A.B.T. not as a stage to sweep but as "a beautiful Tiffany lamp, made from many wonderful pieces of glass. What can I say?

Some parts of the lamp are missing." He agrees with Kaye that the move is natural. "There have been so many things in my life, so many risky positions, tricky situations, so many premieres and styles.

I did not know what could excite me now, but this does." He pauses, and wryly adds, "I sound like anyone who ever started a publishing house or a restaurant. You always think you can do better."

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