As you may or may not know, I am quite involved in dance. I recently received a full scholarship to a ballet studio, and I am taking full advantage of that, dancing at least 10 hours a week there, and at least 4 hours a week at another studio as well.

Anyway, being that I am so engaged in ballet lately, I have been watching videos of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolph Nureyev, quite possibly the two best male ballet dancers (ballerinos) in the history of forever.

Rudolph Nureyev dancing Corsaire with Margot Fonteyne (who is also amazing):


Mikhail Baryshnikov also dancing Corsaire (though he does only the male variation, a.k.a. the male solo):



Obviously on a personal level I am floored by these performances, as was the rest of the classical ballet community. Nobody had ever seen anything like either of these men. It really helps to know what exactly it is that you're looking at, and to have some understanding of how the moves are executed, so being an actual dancer helps, but they're still pretty amazing to watch. I mean, seriously...HOW THE HELL DOES ANYONE EVER JUMP AS HIGH AS NUREYEV?? (see around 3:20 or so) And those incredible turns in both performances...how do you ever keep your balance like that? It's like they're all superhuman!

Oh well...I am aware that many of you may not appreciate this nearly as much as I, but I wish to expand the world's view of dance, especially the concept and acceptance of male dancers. These men were phenomenal, the best there ever was. I hope you can at least appreciate these a little bit.

I wish they were in better quality, too! I would LOVE to be able to really look at all the smallest details of their movements. Unfortunately, Nureyev had advanced AIDS and died at age 54 in 1993. Most of his greatest dancing was done in a period where quality was not the best. Baryshnikov, on the other hand, is still alive and is still doing some dancing, though not nearly to the level he was at the time that video was taken.

Just as a little bit more background, Rudolph Nureyev is the reason men have the kinds of roles they do in present-day classical ballet. Any time he performed he was given incredibly large roles (for obvious reasons). The problem is that many large roles for men....didn't exist! Up until that point, the male's job was to support the female. People would write entire parts for Nureyev. Nureyev also worked very hard on opening up the classical ballet world to the modern dance world, (and Baryshnikov followed in his footsteps). Now most dancers, choreographers, and directors greatly value BOTH ballet and modern styles, where in the past only ballet was really considered essential.

Baryshnikov pretty much followed in Nureyev's footsteps. He, too, was a phenomenal dancer with incredible technique. Many choreographers wrote ballets for Baryshnikov to dance, expanding the male repertoire even further. He also forwarded the mixing of modern dance and classical ballet.

Not only are these men incredible dancers, but they have both greatly influenced not only the classical ballet sphere, but the entire dance world as a whole. That only makes me appreciate them even more.

And it's even better to know that they can still laugh at themselves.

Here's Nureyev on The Muppets performing a scene from "Swine" Lake: