Mikhail Baryshnikov has donated his personal archive to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

It contains letters as well as rare photographs and 650 video recordings, including footage of Baryshnikov rehearsing with the great George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham.

In an interview with the New York Times, the dancer said the archive represented his whole life. “I feel a weight from my shoulders.” he said, adding, “In the first part of life, you accumulate things. In the second part of life, you get rid of it.”