Live at the White House; Baryshnikov at the White House

<v Speaker>Major funding for this program is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. <v Edward Villella>Hello, I'm Edward Villella. I want to welcome you to the East Room of the White House, <v Edward Villella>where the great dance and Mikhail Baryshnikov is about to perform for president and Mrs. <v Edward Villella>Carter and their guests and via television for viewers all over America. <v Edward Villella>He will dance a series of duets and solos that display different- different aspects of <v Edward Villella>his gifts, a romantic clown of Hollick, an odd, brilliant rubies, the earthy tarantella <v Edward Villella>all choreographed by George Balanchine and a lyrical suite of dances to <v Edward Villella>Chopin by Jerome Robbins. <v Edward Villella>We are delighted that Mr. Robbins is here with us today. <v Edward Villella>Baryshnikov has said that one of the reasons he was honored and so pleased to dance for <v Edward Villella>the president of the United States was that he wanted in some small way to say thank

<v Edward Villella>you to America. He's very grateful for the opportunities he's been given since he came <v Edward Villella>to this country from the Soviet Union four and a half years ago. <v Edward Villella>He was born in Latvia, in Russia at the famous ballet conservatory attached <v Edward Villella>to the Mariinsky Theater. <v Edward Villella>This is the school that produced Nijinsky and Pavlova and George Balanchine. <v Edward Villella>Like most artists, Baryshnikov instinctively wanted to test himself against <v Edward Villella>the difficult and the unknown. <v Edward Villella>Dancing with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet, he was praised for his work in the classics <v Edward Villella>of the last century, ballets like Swan Lake and Jazelle. <v Edward Villella>But Misha, as his friends and fans call him, wanted to work directly <v Edward Villella>with the choreographers who he felt we're making the most inventive and exciting dance <v Edward Villella>now. To do this, he came to America, where he danced first <v Edward Villella>with American Ballet Theater. <v Edward Villella>Last year, he joined the New York City Ballet, the home of Mr. Balanchine and Mr. <v Edward Villella>Robbins, where he is a principal dancer.

<v Edward Villella>Two of the New York City Ballet ballerinas, Patricia McBride and Heather Watts, <v Edward Villella>will perform with Baryshnikov in today's concert. <v Edward Villella>Because of their intense interest in the arts. <v Edward Villella>President and Mrs. Carter have inaugurated a series of Sunday afternoon concerts at the <v Edward Villella>White House. In the past months, the first family has been host to <v Edward Villella>cellist's Mistislav Rostropovich, pianist Vladimir <v Edward Villella>Horowitz and singer Leontyne Price. <v Edward Villella>Today, the Carters welcome mikhail Baryshnikov. <v Edward Villella>Bistro has seen several changes of decoration at the turn of this century. <v Edward Villella>The room was restored to the simple white and gold elegance of the <v Edward Villella>late seventeen hundreds. In 1965, the East Room acquired the <v Edward Villella>professionally equipped portable stage given by Rebecca Harkness <v Edward Villella>that Baryshnikov and his partners will dance on today. <v Edward Villella>It blends so well with the design of the room, it's it's hard to believe that it's <v Edward Villella>installed by four workers in a few hours.

<v Edward Villella>Naturally, the choreography of the dances you will see today has been adapted <v Edward Villella>from the huge stage on which it is usually performed in its setting in the East Room. <v Edward Villella>We we now have this chance to see it intimately in close up. <v Speaker>Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States and Mrs. <v Speaker>Carter. <v President Jimmy Carter>One of the many great pleasures of being president is to have a chance <v President Jimmy Carter>to share with the American people. <v President Jimmy Carter>The excitement of superb talent.

<v President Jimmy Carter>And electrifying performances. <v President Jimmy Carter>Especially here in the White House. <v President Jimmy Carter>We have that kind of experience in store for us this afternoon. <v President Jimmy Carter>We have two very talented. <v President Jimmy Carter>Dancers from the United States, Patricia McBride from New Jersey, <v President Jimmy Carter>Heather Watts from California. <v President Jimmy Carter>And as all of you know. <v President Jimmy Carter>We have perhaps the finest dancer of our lifetime. <v President Jimmy Carter>Mikhail Baryshnikov. <v President Jimmy Carter>who will perform with those two performers. <v President Jimmy Carter>I think it's accurate to say that. <v President Jimmy Carter>Misha Baryshnikov is a person who <v President Jimmy Carter>is modest in his acclaim for himself. <v President Jimmy Carter>But who has been recognized as one of those who adds <v President Jimmy Carter>a new dimension to great ballet performances.

<v President Jimmy Carter>His style, his technique, his enthusiasm, his dedication, his <v President Jimmy Carter>versatility are well recognized by all who know him, <v President Jimmy Carter>or who know his performances. <v President Jimmy Carter>But perhaps the overriding unique <v President Jimmy Carter>characteristic of his dancing is his great courage. <v President Jimmy Carter>He's never afraid to launch into new <v President Jimmy Carter>experiences and to try new things and to experiment. <v President Jimmy Carter>His successes are almost overwhelming. <v President Jimmy Carter>We are grateful that he's come to live and to perform <v President Jimmy Carter>in our country. <v President Jimmy Carter>But I think it's accurate to say that I tell it like it is, transcends national <v President Jimmy Carter>boundaries. He binds together the human spirit. <v President Jimmy Carter>In a sense of mutual enjoyment throughout the world. <v President Jimmy Carter>And as president, I'm grateful to these three fine performers this afternoon.

<v President Jimmy Carter>For the audience that we have here in the East Room of the White House and for the <v President Jimmy Carter>television audience throughout our own country, in fact in other nations as well, <v President Jimmy Carter>who will share this delightful experience with us here at the White House. <v President Jimmy Carter>Thank you very much. <v Edward Villella>The duet from Harlequinade dance by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Patricia McBride. <v Edward Villella>We see love of a Holligan for his lady, Columbine. <v Edward Villella>These characters go back four centuries to the old Italian comic theater. <v Edward Villella>But when Mr. Balanchine was making the ballet, I had the privilege of being the first <v Edward Villella>Harlequin, he said. When we do it, they're not slapstick figures. <v Edward Villella>You're classical dancers. Pollock and steps are classical ballet steps. <v Edward Villella>And it's what the choreographer and dancer flavor those steps with a certain <v Edward Villella>twist to the shoulders or gesture of the hand harlequin's prancing walk. <v Edward Villella>That's what gives the role it's special style.

<v Edward Villella>It's an attitude too really, there's mischief in it and and joy. <v Edward Villella>It sparkles. <v Edward Villella>Mr. Baryshnikov and Miss McBride will be joined in Hollick and odd by young ballet <v Edward Villella>students in the Washington community. <v Edward Villella>I've been myself a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for many years.

<v Edward Villella>I had the pleasure and honor of First Dancing the Balanchine roles Baryshnikov is <v Edward Villella>performing today was my pleasure again to work with Misha when he <v Edward Villella>prepared to do each of these roles for the first time. <v Edward Villella>The pleasure was not simply in revisiting ballet as I loved and admired, but <v Edward Villella>to see Baryshnikov skill, his sensitivity and and more than anything, <v Edward Villella>his openness to the new dance world he's had the courage to enter. <v Edward Villella>Part of what is extraordinary about Baryshnikov is his versatility. <v Edward Villella>He can go from the European style of the Harlequinade we just saw to the New World <v Edward Villella>style of Balanchine's Rubies, which he will dance today with Heather Watts. <v Edward Villella>Set to Igor Stravinsky's music, Rubies is explosive and jazzy with a <v Edward Villella>kind of Broadway wit. <v Edward Villella>Both ballets call for a brilliant technician, which Baryshnikov surely is but <v Edward Villella>to do them both on their own stylistic terms, in their own accent, <v Edward Villella>as Baryshnikov does goes beyond technique.

<v Edward Villella>To artistry. <v Edward Villella>Balanchine and Baryshnikov came to America from the same Russian ballet tradition <v Edward Villella>and schooling. Both came as young men in their 20s, Balanchine in 1933, <v Edward Villella>Baryshnikov some 40 years later. <v Edward Villella>Both have discovered America. <v Edward Villella>It's high speed, it's percussive, beat its appetite for space. <v Edward Villella>And it's brash nerve. <v Edward Villella>And both of them have captured these qualities in dance images <v Edward Villella>either Balanchine or Baryshnikov has turned his back on the dance tradition <v Edward Villella>he came from. Rather, they have both expanded upon it. <v Edward Villella>Through Balan- Balanchine's trailblazing choreography and ballets like Rubies, <v Edward Villella>Baryshnikov is exploring where the several hundred year old classical dance language <v Edward Villella>can go next. <v Edward Villella>The excitement of giving a balance for off balance, packing <v Edward Villella>more movement into less musical time, using energy that's

<v Edward Villella>not just generous, but splurging. <v Edward Villella>Steps that safely hug the ground now use that floor as a springboard <v Edward Villella>into space. <v Edward Villella>Partnering that's dropped its polite, courtly manners to become a game <v Edward Villella>chaser. A duel of wits with just a whiff of romance. <v Edward Villella>You'll see it all there in Rubies. <v Edward Villella>Chopin's music seems to be made for dancing.

<v Edward Villella>Seventy years ago, the great Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokine made a ballet <v Edward Villella>to a handful of piano pieces by Chopin. <v Edward Villella>Prelude, so Mazurkas and waltzes. <v Edward Villella>It starred some of the most magical dancers of its day, Anna Pavlova, <v Edward Villella>Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky. <v Edward Villella>At the time, it seemed to be a revolutionary ballet. <v Edward Villella>It had no story and just a hint of characters. <v Edward Villella>A poet and some silts dream women who seem to dance <v Edward Villella>on air figments of the poet's imagination. <v Edward Villella>That ballet Les Sylphides is performed today, throughout the world <v Edward Villella>has become a classic. <v Edward Villella>Its secret is that it is simply about dancing to music. <v Edward Villella>One of our great native choreographers, Jerome Robbins, has made some of his <v Edward Villella>most beautiful dances in response to Chopin's piano music. <v Edward Villella>The three Chopin dances we're about to see combine sections from

<v Edward Villella>two of these works with one new dance that is being presented here for the first time. <v Edward Villella>So we have the additional privilege today of witnessing a print. <v Edward Villella>To work with a groundbreaking choreographer like George Balanchine or Jerome Robbins <v Edward Villella>to have a dance designed as this one was for Baryshnikov, not just for <v Edward Villella>you, but on you. With you by a master craftsman. <v Edward Villella>That is what a dancer is hungry for. <v Edward Villella>The choreography is using your body, your way of moving your your talents <v Edward Villella>as his raw material. It's not simply that you may be shown at your best, but <v Edward Villella>that some hidden quality may be revealed. <v Edward Villella>New possibilities opened up in your dancing. <v Edward Villella>The performer knows, too, that years from now, when he no longer will be dancing <v Edward Villella>a role. Part of him will remain in that dance. <v Edward Villella>Three Chopin dances has no story, it has no specific characters <v Edward Villella>except what the music and the dancing suggest to our imagination.

<v Edward Villella>Whatever we know about this man and woman dance by Baryshnikov and Miss McBride, <v Edward Villella>we learn from the movement Jerome Robbins has drawn out of Chopin's music. <v Edward Villella>When he describes the making of the duet in his book, Baryshnikov at Work, <v Edward Villella>Meesha says, Jerry, talk to me through the music all the time. <v Edward Villella>Listen to the music. He would say, this is how I understand the music. <v Edward Villella>Balanchine's tarantella is a terrific challenge for a dancer.

<v Edward Villella>In every way, it's six and a half minutes of all out energy. <v Edward Villella>It never lets up. Jumping, you're turning, you're leaping at top speed. <v Edward Villella>There's no time to prepare a step carefully. <v Edward Villella>No time to finish it with every muscle in place, you just go. <v Edward Villella>And yet every single step along the way has to be absolutely <v Edward Villella>clear so that the audience sees it, even though it's flying past. <v Edward Villella>You have to have the technique sharp as a tack. <v Edward Villella>You have to have the stamina. <v Edward Villella>And you have to be so on top of all of that, that you can get out on the stage. <v Edward Villella>Nearly impossible things and. <v Edward Villella>Make them look like fun. <v Edward Villella>For a dancer like Baryshnikov. <v Edward Villella>Tarantella is fun because he can take that speed, for instance, and play with it. <v Edward Villella>You're up in the air and then down with an easy little step and then you attack the space <v Edward Villella>again. Up. And then you'll hold back for a second, maybe teasing <v Edward Villella>with the rhythm and then you soar.

<v Edward Villella>Dancers live for this kind of thing, and it's a Baryshnikov who has the physical <v Edward Villella>competence to make it work. <v Edward Villella>The same time he's he's got to make it look human, personal. <v Edward Villella>Because Tarantella isn't just a physical technical duet. <v Edward Villella>Yes, it's a virtuoso display, but it also gives us two people. <v Edward Villella>The man and his partner are Neopolitan countryfolk. <v Edward Villella>The ballet has an atmosphere, sunny and earthy. <v Edward Villella>This man is a dancer. Yes, but he's also a character. <v Edward Villella>He's got everything he's a charmer. <v Misha Baryshnikov>Thanks America.

<v Edward Villella>It is thrilling for artists to be asked to perform for the leaders of a nation. <v Edward Villella>It means recognition, recognition of the fact that he has achieved at least <v Edward Villella>part of the gold, which he's dedicated a lifetime of work. <v Edward Villella>Even more important, it tells him that his art is a vital part <v Edward Villella>of the life of this country. <v Edward Villella>An added pleasure for today's artists has been to dance, as Mikhail Baryshnikov <v Edward Villella>has, not only for the distinguished audience here in the East <v Edward Villella>Room of the White House, but at the same time for the millions of people in the <v Edward Villella>television audience. <v Speaker>Major funding for this program was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.