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.”
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
