Biography
Mikhail Baryshnikov is a Latvian-born American dancer, choreographer and actor. He was born on 27 January 1948 in Riga, Latvia. He trained at the Riga State Choreographic School and the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad before joining the Kirov Ballet as a soloist in 1966.
In 1974 he defected while on tour in Canada and subsequently danced with American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet. He served as artistic director of American Ballet Theatre from 1980 to 1989 and later founded the White Oak Dance Project.
Baryshnikov made his film debut as Yuri Kopeikine in The Turning Point (1977), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination. His other film roles include Nikolai Rodchenko in White Nights (1985) and Pyotr Grushenko in Company Business (1991). He has also appeared in the television series Sex and the City (2003–2004) as Aleksandr Petrovsky.
