我想就算巴瑞辛尼可夫(Mikhail Baryshnikov)老到只能站在舞台上鞠躬，依然會贏得滿堂彩吧！
Baryshnikov 拉脫維亞滿座的演出，大多數人應該都是去看這位傳奇人物的。就和體育賽事一樣，雖然許多比賽有長青組，但長青組的賽事會有甚麼精彩的演出呢？觀眾大底是要看自己年輕時的偶像，或是傳奇人物。很現實不是嗎？
芭蕾、現代舞、百老匯... 還有電影、電視，五、六年前還看到他客串演出好幾集的慾望城市（Sex and the City），他是天生的表演者。
記得幾年前看史普林斯汀(Bruce Springsteen)的二十周年紀念演唱會DVD：一個中年略為發福的男子，唱著熟悉的搖滾樂，嘶吼的動作依舊，力道已少了好幾成。而記憶中台下熱舞搖擺又尖叫的辣妹們，也換成了扭腰揮手的歐巴桑了。看著馬克安諾(John McEnore)與柏格(Björn Borg)的表演賽，總覺得他們是在玩，雖然氣氛融洽。球迷們依然為每一個精彩的回球發出讚嘆，不過我想那都是懷舊的讚嘆。老闆(the Boss, Bruce Springsteen)、冰人(Iceman, Björn Borg)和壞小子(Bad boy, John McEnroe)的對戰，不都是在成長過程中，美好事物的最高呈現者嗎？
沒能趕上紐瑞耶夫(Rudolf Nureyev)的時代，後來看一些錄影也不能接受那種過分誇大的舞台妝。巴瑞辛尼可夫在那齣炫技式唐吉軻德(Don Quixote)的演出，實在令我驚艷：他在整齣劇中飛來飛去，彷彿「地心引力」只是牛頓的白日夢一般。他跳巴蘭欽(George Balanchine)的舞更是如入化境，即使無須對抗地心引力的曲目，他所展現的輕快流暢，和與音樂的融合，真是偉大的藝術呈現。
Baryshnikov 至今仍能保持一定的身手和舞者的身材，雖然自紐約時報的多媒體中看到的他，只是擺擺姿勢，不過仍是架式十足。看看下面這段他在電影飛越蘇聯(White Night)中的演出，回味一下他美妙的舞技。
He Has a Pass to Dance as Long as He Wants
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
Mikhail Baryshnikov in “Valse-Fantasie,” by the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky.
By CLAUDIA LA ROCCO
Published: May 14, 2009
WHEREVER Mikhail Baryshnikov is right now, odds are he’s stretching something. Warming up or cooling down. It’s all part of an hours-long regimen involving ballet barres and floor mats and exercise balls, necessary to keep his 61-year-old body in fighting trim.
This isn’t for vanity. Mr. Baryshnikov is in the midst of a two-month European tour with choreography by Mats Ek, Benjamin Millepied and Alexei Ratmansky — and lots of Mikhail Baryshnikov. (The tour comes to the United States in the fall, beginning with a performance at Santa Monica College in California on Sept. 4.) He dances three solos, including Mr. Ek’s “Solo for Two” with Ana Laguna, Mr. Ek’s wife and muse.
“I’m telling them, do something for an old man,” Mr. Baryshnikov said in an interview at his Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan last month. (He was, for the record, sitting on an exercise ball.) He gave one of his deep-throated chuckles. “Ana’s also mid-50s, and kind of the same age bracket, so to speak: the glue factory.”
Mr. Baryshnikov is fond of the old-man quips these days. But his performances are hardly portraits of a diminished star. (In an earlier rehearsal the ease and precision with which he whipped through spiraling, off-balance jumps had Mr. Millepied, a New York City Ballet principal, whistling softly in appreciation.) Rather they are portraits of the dancer as mature artist, one with remarkable physical clarity. And, he still has the best hands in the business.
quip n. 1. 妙語,好笑的話,俏皮話 2. 諷刺話,挖苦話
3. 遁詞 4. 奇怪的事物[行為]
“I am not trying to do material which I cannot do full out,” said Mr. Baryshnikov, who long ago moved on from his career as a virtuosic ballet star in the 1970s and ’80s, creating the White Oak Dance Project with Mark Morris in 1990. He has been focused on his center and an eclectic range of projects. “This is material for an adult.”
virtuoso n. 1. 名家,巨匠 2. 著名演奏家 3. 藝術品愛好者[鑑賞家]
4. 學者,專家 5. (似)名家的 6. (古董、藝術品之)愛好者的
eclectic n. adj. 折衷學派哲學家;折衷主義者
He is somewhat serious when he talks about the glue factory. Dancers don’t often get to perform this late in their lives, nor call so many of the shots. Particularly in ballet, stage retirement comes early.
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times
Mr. Baryshnikov dances alongside black and white footage of his younger self in Benjamin Millepied’s “Years Later.”
“I was lucky,” he said, adding that it is usually only choreographers who get to keep dancing as long as they want. “When you’re just a dancer, it’s a bit different. For me it was a surprise when Mats Ek called me. You know, he’s one of the most popular choreographers. There’s a big line in front of his door.”
But Mr. Baryshnikov isn’t “just a dancer.” Let us pass lightly over the line of potential collaborators in front of his door — not to mention his stage door, which opens to a swarm of aspiring ballerinas turned autograph seekers, according to the choreographer David Neumann, who toured with him last summer.
“
The Misha aura exists, it’s a real thing,” Mr. Neumann said, noting that Mr. Baryshnikov would hate him saying that. They became friends while performing in “Beckett Shorts” in 2007, and Mr. Baryshnikov subsequently asked him to make them a duet. “I saw a man who I was very fond of and who was funny and smart and engaging and curious, and I was very excited to work with this guy.
In Russian Misha is a diminutive for the Russian male name Mikhail.
aura n. (物體散發的)氣味;(芳香等引起的)感覺上的刺激;(周圍獨特的)氣氛,氛圍“Then we got into rehearsal,” Mr. Neumann added. “How do you give him a note? He’s worked with the greatest choreographers of all time. That was a very strange internal hurdle I had to overcome.”
Mr. Baryshnikov is quick to squelch talk of his aura or — worse — celebrity, scrunching up his craggy face and waving his hand dismissively when the subject arises. Choreographers emphasize his focus in the studio, his generosity and his passion for exploring new worlds.
“He was very open and friendly and simple,” Mr. Ratmansky said of their time creating “Valse-Fantasie.” “Nothing like a diva, which I’m very used to in Russia, with famous dancers.” (Michael Nunn and William Trevitt’s documentary “Strictly Bolshoi” gives a sense of the drama Mr. Ratmansky endured.) But even Mr. Ratmansky, who became American Ballet Theater’s resident choreographer after four years as the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director, needed to get over a case of nerves.
Mr. Ek, 64, a highly respected Swedish choreographer, had as little interest in the notion of Mr. Baryshnikov’s singularity as the man himself, describing him as something of a dinosaur from “a time where there were still big worldwide known ballet icons.” But for younger choreographers, particularly male ballet dancers like Mr. Millepied and Mr. Ratmansky who grew up revering Mr. Baryshnikov, the prospect of creating a solo for him is somewhat more charged.
“When I was at Bolshoi school, we were not allowed to talk about him, and our ballet teacher never mentioned him,” Mr. Ratmansky said, referring to Mr. Baryshnikov’s status after his defection in 1974. The students resorted to bootleg videotapes. “That was quite a shock to see the level of dancing and the artistry, and of course he became the idol of not only me but many around.”
bootleg vi, n, adj, 違法販賣[運輸](酒等)Mr. Ratmansky simply laughed and murmured “amazement” when asked about his response to Mr. Baryshnikov’s invitation to make him a solo. “What can I say?” he asked, his laughter increasing when he was told that the last Russian choreographer Mr. Baryshnikov worked with was George Balanchine. Mr. Ratmansky’s “Valse-Fantasie,” set to the oft-used Glinka music that Mr. Baryshnikov called “Russia’s national anthem,” draws on mime to tell an ambiguous story of desire and loss.
“Of course it’s very Russian,” Mr. Ratmansky said of the music. “Glinka wrote it after he was abroad for a few years, so it has this sense of something that you leave behind, something very beautiful and important, but now you look at it from a distance. I thought it’s the right flavor for this work, for him.”
Andrea Mohin/The New York TimesAlexei RatmanskyThe dance is laden with subtle layers of history and personal meaning; it’s premiere on May 2 took place in Riga, Latvia, Mr. Baryshnikov’s hometown.
“The crowd responded a lot when he came out for the first time,” said Inta Balode, a Latvian dance critic. “There was also some feeling of sadness and nostalgia about Baryshnikov’s first big stage. It seemed that he is saying goodbye to the Latvian National Opera. Maybe not, but that’s my feeling.”
He and Ms. Laguna received standing ovations at the sold-out performances. The audiences included his two oldest children and many faces from his childhood, some of whom he danced with on that same stage.
“It’s a beautiful kind of exchange, those memories,” Mr. Baryshnikov said during a telephone interview from his hotel room after opening night. “It was the beginning of my life until I was 16 or so.”
Mr. Millepied’s solo, “Years Later,” incorporates black and white footage of that beginning in a film by Asa Mader that sometimes has the dancer playfully competing with his younger self. A quiet meditation on aging, it also addresses Mr. Baryshnikov’s larger-than-life status and people’s desire, as Mr. Neumann put it, for “him to be the hero, the extraordinary virtuosic dancer again and again.”
Mr. Millepied also fiendishly studied Mr. Baryshnikov. The two, who share adventurous tastes in dance, eventually became good friends. “I can give him a hard time, we argue,” Mr. Millepied said. He chuckled. “But I always know who I’m facing.”
More than Mr. Baryshnikov’s abilities, Mr. Millepied said, he admired his curious mind. After the tour Mr. Baryshnikov will plunge into a project with Mr. Ek: a duet for him and Mr. Ek’s brother, Niklas, 65. Bring on the glue factory.
“It’s that itch that I think I can unlock this piece,” Mr. Baryshnikov said of his endless appetite for new work. “Because not that many years left. Might as well have fun.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/arts/dance/17laro.html?pagewanted=1
The story is taken from The New York Times. The copyright of this article belongs to its original owner. The New York Times is not involved with, nor endorse the production of this blog.
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