[2] Born in Riga, Latvian SSR, into a Russian family, Baryshnikov had a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad before defecting to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in Western dance.

Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own.

[citation needed] His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema, and television, has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary ballet dancer.

He starred in the movie White Nights with Gregory Hines, Helen Mirren, and Isabella Rossellini, and had a recurring role in the last season of the television series Sex and the City.

[4][5] His parents were ethnic Russians: his mother was Alexandra (a dressmaker; née Kiselyova) and his father was Nikolay Baryshnikov (an engineer).

Baryshnikov made signature roles of Jakobson's 1969 virtuosic Vestris along with an intensely emotional Albrecht in Giselle.

[7][8] More frustrating to him, the Soviet dance world hewed closely to 19th-century traditions and deliberately shunned Western choreographers, whose work Baryshnikov glimpsed in occasional tours and films.

[12] In December 1975, he and his dance partner Natalia Makarova featured prominently in an episode of the BBC television series Arena.

In the first two years after his defection, he danced for no fewer than 13 different choreographers, including Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, Alvin Ailey, and Twyla Tharp.

He cited his fascination with the ways Ailey mixed classical and modern technique and his initial discomfort when Tharp insisted he incorporate eccentric personal gestures in dance.

[13] In 1978, Baryshnikov abandoned his freelance career to spend 18 months as a principal of the New York City Ballet, run by George Balanchine.

[16] On July 8, 1978, he made his debut with George Balanchine's and Lincoln Kirstein's company at Saratoga Springs, appearing as Franz in Coppélia.

From 1990 to 2002, Baryshnikov was artistic director of the White Oak Dance Project, a touring company he co-founded with Mark Morris.

Featuring works by Baryshnikov Arts Center residents Azsure Barton and Benjamin Millepied, the company toured the United States and Brazil.

In late August 2007, Baryshnikov performed Mats Ek's Place (Ställe) with Ana Laguna at Dansens Hus in Stockholm.

[3] Baryshnikov made his American television dancing debut in 1976, on the PBS program In Performance Live from Wolf Trap.

[21] Baryshnikov also performed in two Emmy-winning television specials, one on ABC and one on CBS, in which he danced to music from Broadway and Hollywood, respectively.

He portrayed the character Yuri Kopeikine, a famous, womanizing Russian ballet dancer, in the 1977 film The Turning Point, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

On television, in the last season of Sex and the City, he played a Russian artist, Aleksandr Petrovsky, who woos Carrie Bradshaw relentlessly and takes her to Paris.

The cartoons were produced by the Russian animation house Soyuzmultfilm, and redubbed by American actors, including Jim Belushi, Laura San Giacomo, Harvey Fierstein and Kirsten Dunst.

Baryshnikov hosted the show, presenting his favorite folktales, including Beauty and the Beast: A Tale of the Crimson Flower, The Snow Queen, The Last Petal and The Golden Rooster.

[23] On November 2, 2006, Baryshnikov and chef Alice Waters were featured on an episode of the Sundance Channel's original series Iconoclasts.

It was presented on the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center's Broad Stage and co-starred Anna Sinyakina.

I have wanted to explore a Chekhov story for the stage for some time and I'm delighted to bring Man in a Case to Berkeley Rep.

And I think it's a romantic show in many respects that is perfect for Berkeley Rep's audience.On April 21, 2015, The New York Times reported that Baryshnikov was scheduled to perform a reading of poet Joseph Brodsky's work in Riga in 2015.

Riga still serves as a place where I find artistic inspiration", Baryshnikov wrote in the letter to the Latvian parliament.

[40] In March 2022, together with economist Sergey Guriyev and writer Boris Akunin, Baryshnikov announced the formation of the True Russia foundation to support victims of the war in Ukraine.

Baryshnikov condemned the Russian invasion and wrote an open letter to Vladimir Putin slamming his "world of fear".

In his letter, Baryshnikov wrote that people of culture who promoted Russian art made more for Russia than Putin's "not-so-precise weapons".