Baryshnikov at Work: Mikhail Baryshnikov Discusses His Roles

I’m a huge admirer of Mikhail Baryshnikov. I’m a dancer myself and have had a horrible injury that has me down in the dumps-not knowing if I’ll ever be able to dance again.I already have seen so many of his work through the years through video and nowadays YouTube. Then I came across an array of books here on Amazon and I couldn’t be more overjoyed! Just reading about his thoughts on his performances and especially an excerpt on one specific performance he did where they told him not to wear his ballet shoes and to wear jazz shoes instead- and his reaction to it, brought me into a fit of 🤭 giggles. He says nooo don’t take away my ballet shoes, I will look like a cow on stage! It’s just so interesting to see what he thought. And there he is in jazz shoes looking like a most gifted/magnificent dancer. Just beautiful . All the pictures of him are genius and for those who thoroughly enjoy dance and to look at the body of a male ballet dancer- his smaller stature of 5’6 is utter perfection! Some of the pictures will even make one blush😊. 5 stars all the way!

Love this book! It is amazing to read Baryshnikov’s feelings about preparing for and performing different ballets. I learned much about him and about the classic ballets that he has performed.

Love this book; had it years ago when it first came out. A fantastic dancer.

Good pics of Misha.

I loved the book but will view it now with more meaning after reading "Baryshnikov From Russia to the West" and how the book seemed to revive the memory in his father who had a fatal brain disease and even with some of his memory gone, he still spoke of his son with such love. "My little son, my pride".

I am an artist, and I bought this to replace the one that I already had. I have used it to study muscles and lines of a dancer. What better way than to study Mikhail. But this time, I began to read the words. It added to my reference.

This is a great picture book. It throws in basic descriptions of the dances. The book "Misha" tells more of his life. I enjoyed reading it more.

Item was delivered on time. It was described as new, but has been indeed heavily used: front and back cover bruised, with marks of fold reaching through two thirds of the book, 20 last pages so strongly folded they can't get back to flat. Not suitable for the gift it was meant to be. 2 problems: lie on the actual state of item and lack of proper rigid packing.

When I was a teenager I waited a year for this book to arrive from the US at a small but excellent dance book shop in Central London. It was the only time I didn't manage to get what I wanted from there.Now, 27 years later I have this book and for £3.80 something!! It was £25 in the 1980's!I wasn't disappointed. This book more than adequately displayed the talent, charisma & sheer hard work that is the legend BaryshnikovA great book. If you love Misha you'll love this book.Was a little more 'dog-eared ' than I expected but a fast service posted directly from the States

This book contains more photographs than pages with text, from all the roles he talks about, and some of rehearsals, all very beautiful.Baryshnikov talks mainly, in these pages, about what his first experience with each ballet was, his expectations, difficulties, interests...the texts are very interesting, if only they were longer...which is what I expected.This book was written only a few years after he decided to stay in the West.

The photo book, "Baryshnikov at Work", is not the ultimate in the craft of published photographic documentation, the photos as reproduced here lacking some degree just a little too much in focus and sharpness of detail. However, many of these photographs did become quite famous in other collections, as somewhat better reproduced, over the years, printed in better quality and detail therein. The photos are are stunningly evocative in pose, gest, posture, and expressivity. The images as gathered here, however, serve a purpose, together, that they do not quite serve, separately, in other photo-documentaries of Baryshnikov. They really do illustrate how eloquently yet also so gracefully and athletically, always conveying such amazing ease, Baryshnikov danced.The texts in the book are especially valuable. Baryshnikov already had developed his repertory of dance roles to a remarkably broad and already stable extent even at so early a stage of his lengthy career (in terms of dancing; of course, he has continued his work in dance as a choreograher, teacher, mentor, and so forth altogether even longer). In his own words, Baryshnikov describes many aspects of the roles and his attitudes towards, and feelings about, them and the choreographic and musical works of which these roles are a part. These comments, too, are not at all vague or superfluous; they really convey a lot of valuable information, despite their brevity, which helps one to understand Baryshninov's art that much better. Seeing the videos (VHS tapes and DVDs) at home or elsewhere that document his work, many of which one can purchase from Amazon, after having read these texts and having studied closely the stills of him dancing these ballets and works of modern dance, adds greatly to one's appreciation of his work.Expressing matters more personally, I am an ardent fan of Rudolf Nureyev, Yuri Soloviev, Carlos Acosta, and of Roberto Bolle, my other favourite male dancers of the post-W.W. II era, but, in the end, I would have to admit that Mikhail Baryshnikov, such a finished and utterly perfect yet also very expressive and endearing dancer, is the greatest of all of these male dancers; that he also was a lad of such undeniably considerable physical beauty, of course, added the more to his allure. Mikhail Baryshnikov truly deserves the homage of books so fine as "Baryshnikov at Work" most surely is!