“Soviet regime in a way deprived me from my childhood in my homeland, because my father was in military, and after the Yalta agreement he was sent to teach in military academy in Riga, and I was born then.”

Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor

Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was born in 1948 and became the preeminent male classical ballet dancer of the 1970s and 1980s. He later worked as a dance director and is also known for his work as a choreographer and actor. His public reputation rests on a long career in classical ballet and on the broader range of performance work that followed.