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Baryshnikov gets off to a fast start with a new company

At the windows of a rehearsal room at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, rows of little female heads glisten in the sun, their chins just making it up to the sill. They are lucky children, for they are watching New York City Ballet Choreographer George Balanchine rehearse his newest principal dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov. The session is long and hard, and it is going very well. Baryshnikov leaps into the whimsical salutes of Stars and Stripes. He and the choreographer pause to discuss some points, speaking in Russian—a common language for both. Later, Baryshnikov, 30, whips through a fast, intricate sequence from Rubies. He repeats it several times with the same unrelenting charge of energy. Balanchine, 74, watches with a private inward smile. American ballet’s hottest, most speculated-on alliance is off to a flying start.

Misha Baryshnikov left the American Ballet Theater last May in order to dance the works of Balanchine and his partner, Jerome Robbins. Rumors flew that Baryshnikov would dance in with his new company in New York during June. It was probably a good idea to begin in the summer season at Saratoga Springs, for if there is any respite from the demands of superstardom, it can be found in this quiet, informal arts center. The performing area is a pavilion that seats 5,100 (many more people can see the action from some distance on the lawn). Saratogans take pride in their July visitors. Ask any shopkeeper, and he will tell you that the dancers and their fans are nicer than the horse-racing crowd that overwhelms the town in August.

Baryshnikov’s debut, as Frantz in Coppelia, was at a matinee. The crowd was full of mothers and kids who had bought seats long before the announcement of Baryshnikov’s appearance. Frantz is an ebullient young man; his entrance is a headlong dash to the front of the stage. Baryshnikov made it his signature: an outpouring of physical power and grace, as well as a challenge to the audience to soar with him. His first afternoon had a couple of rough spots: in the first act he strolled onstage ahead of cue and was stuck watching dances he had nothing to do with. But in the last and showiest act, he silenced any doubts that he would somehow scale down his jumps to what is referred to as the “Balanchine style.” He leaped like a cat and, as always, seemed to hang in the air.

He next appeared in a very different work, Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun, which has almost no steps at all. It is a brief, seductive work about two dancers practicing in front of a “mirror” (actually the proscenium) and gradually making enigmatic erotic contact with each other. Baryshnikov’s first original Balanchine works are Stars and Stripes and Rubies, both of which happen to call for speed, wit and fiendish virtuosity.

Misha’s impact at the box office was immediate. Says Herbert Chesbrough, manager of the arts center: “There is a demand for tickets we literally don’t have.” The dancers are excited. One admits there is “healthy envy” among men who may have to wait longer to get certain roles. But, says another, “we haven’t seen some of the moves he has. After he leaves the rehearsal room, the boys try them out.”

The veterans pay him high compliments. Jacques d’Amboise, 43, for whom the Stars and Stripes part was created 20 years ago, says, “He’s the first person I’ve enjoyed teaching this role to because he really can do it.” Peter Martins, 31, a tall, elegant company star, stayed in the wings throughout Coppelia in case Misha, a good friend, had any questions. Happiest of all is Patricia McBride, 35, one of the very few ballerinas short enough to dance the stricter classical roles with Baryshnikov (who is 5 ft. 6½ in.). “I’m thrilled,” she says, adding however that “we know we’re all unique in Balanchine’s eyes. He makes us feel special.”

McBride is right. So is Heather Watts, 24, who has just been promoted to soloist. Recalling 1975, when Suzanne Farrell’s five-year quarrel with Mr. B ended, Watts says, “It’s like when Suzanne came back. We were fine before, but we were better when she returned. It’s the same with Misha. It’s another new era.”

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